The Real World
by allyg1990
Summary: Last Chapter now up... AU, with powers. Kurtty, Romy, BobbyxOC, RayxOC Rated for later chapters. I know you guys click, please let me know what you think. Thanks to those who have reviewed!
1. A Dream

This story is set in a universe where X-Men: Evolution _is_ a cartoon series, but it has been created to allow normal kids to associate the X-Men with friendly people, and ease the eventual revelation that mutants do actually exist.

Hope that wasn't too complicated. Oh well, here goes.

"Okay, I'll wake her up."

"No! I'm her favorite character! The professor _told_ us she watches the show."

"Yes, but you, Kurt, are a _boy._"

"So?"

"She's a girl. This is a girl's school. Don't you think she'd find it a bit weird to be woken up by a _boy_?"

"Too late, Jean!"

My eyes opened, disturbed by the sounds around me.

My roommate had been in the hospital wing the last couple of days, so who was in my room?

I couldn't see a thing, due to the fact that I wasn't wearing my glasses, so I reached my hand out to my beside table and grabbed them. When they were perched on my nose, I looked ahead of me to see two people kneeling at the end of my bed: One redheaded and pale-skinned, the other barely visible in the dim light filtering through my curtains from the moonlit sky.

"Hi, Cherry." Said the redhead. "I'm Jean. This-" she motioned to the other person, obviously a boy, "Is Kurt. We have something to tell you." She took a breath. "You're a mutant, and we need your help."

She seemed surprised by the huge smile on my face.

"No way! This is the best dream ever!" I squealed. "You guys are the X-Men from the cartoon series!"

The two teenage mutants looked at eachother.

"It doesn't really matter if that vat she thinks, does it?" asked Kurt with a shrug. Jean looked at him sternly.

"Kurt! We can't take her into the middle of a battle with her thinking it's all a dream!" she scolded. "She might get hurt!"

He rolled his eyes. "Don't you remember vat the professor said? She can't get hurt- she's invulnerable."

"Even so," retorted the older girl. "It's not fair to let her believe this is all a dream.

"

Kurt glanced up, his now visible tail flicking from side to side in annoyance.

"Who cares? We need to get her out there _now_, or it's going to be too late."

Realizing that they wouldn't stop arguing until I told them that I believed them, I said "I believe you."

The telepath looked at me. "No, you don't. But anyway, Kurt's right, there's no time to waste." She motioned for me to stand up, and did so herself. Then she put your hand on my shoulders.

"Cherry, as I said, you're a mutant. Yesterday you fell down a flight of steps, didn't you?" I nodded. "You should have been seriously hurt, but your powers manifested and protected you. Remember how later your friend showed you all her little cuts that seemed to disappear when you touched them? You weren't just wiping blood away from a healed wound. You have the power to heal, and as Kurt said, you're invulnerable. The professor didn't tell us how you do it, you'll find out how later. But now we really need you to come with us- we're fighting a battle, and lots of people are really hurt- we need you to heal them so we can keep fighting."

I smiled happily. "Sure. Why not?" It _was_ a dream, after all, and in dreams you can do anything. Jean shook her head at my ignorance, then said "Hold on to my arm, and Kurt'll teleport us out of here." I obeyed her, giddy with excitement. Then, with a fairly quiet _bamf _and a slight smell of sulphur, we were gone.

So that's chapter one. It gets more interesting pretty quickly. Please review, but don't shoot me down too much, it's my first fanfic. I'm trying to improve my writing style to carry on with a collection of short stories I'm writing at the moment, so constructive criticism is welcomed….

allyg1990


	2. Discovery

Here's chapter two- I'm hoping to make it a bit more interesting than chapter one.

Instantly we arrived in the middle of a large clearing in the middle of a forest I'd never seen before. The noise was unbearable, lights flashing, the ground shaking as mutant against mutant fought furiously.

Jean immediately ran into the midst of the battle, the green and black of her costume clearly visible between bursts of light.

It was all much more exciting than anything I'd ever seen on the TV show, and adrenalin rushed through my veins, as she shouted

"Kurt, take her to them!"

I unsteadily followed the older boy through the trees, unsteady on my feet from giddiness. Nothing this vivid had _ever_ happened in my dreams before!

Soon we reached a group of people forming a circle around a boy who seemed to be around fifteen, my age. Blood was seeping from a deep wound in his stomach, and the people around him parted to let me through.

"So, what do I do?" I asked, oblivious to the life or death situation in front of me.

"You put my life in the hands of a complete amateur?!!" the boy yelled. "Are you nuts?"

But then, I knew what to do, as if a voice was speaking to me inside my head.

_Put your hand on the wound and ask it to heal. _It said. Shrugging, I did so, flinching as I lay my hand on the gash, feeling the sticky blood.

_Heal_ I said unconsciously, and at once a soft pinkish light glowed around my hand, and the sensation of blood against my skin faded, the blood drying as the wound healed.

The boy grinned up at me, his sweat soaked brown hair messy, and managed to say "Thanks" before passing out.

Jean returned, out of breath, with several other people, and I was too wrapped up in myself to hear her say "They've gone- it's over. We won."

I smiled. "That," I said, "Is pretty awesome. This is the best dream I've had in a while!"

The vaguely familiar faces of adults and teenagers surrounding me looked up at Kurt. He put his hands on his face, peeking his eyes out of the blue fingers.

"Don't ask. She thinks this is all a dream." He said. More hands went to faces, and one went on my shoulder. A familiar gruff voice I recognized as Wolverine said "Kid, this isn't a dream." Three claws popped out close to my head, and I flinched.

"Of course it is." I replied. "How can any of this possibly be real? It's just a dream about some TV show I watch with my seven year old sister. If it was a dream, I would be able to feel pain." I pinched myself, and to my great surprise, it hurt.

"No." repeated the man softly. "This isn't a dream."

I looked up, confused, at the faces of the people whose cartoon versions ran across my TV screen when I was at home from boarding school, sharing time with my younger sister. Whose adventures were immortalized on YouTube. Their faces stared at me, streaked with mud and sweat, and I was distinctly aware that I was standing in the middle of a forest, clothed in nothing but pajamas, my face unwashed, my hair messed up, and barefoot.

"Oh." I said, for once in my life completely lost for words. "What do I do now?"

The tension between me and the other people broke, and a distinct southern voice called out "Introducing ourselves might not be such a bad idea!"

With that a voice yet again sounded in my mind, and apparently in everyone else's too.

_No. She's had a strange night so far. Leave it to the morning. Kurt, I'd like you to teleport her directly to my office immediately-it should be close enough, you are only several kilometers away from the institute.. The rest of you, get into the X-Jet and into bed. It's a Sunday tomorrow, and we'll sort everything out in the morning._

They all started to move, and several of them waved at me, including the boy I'd healed, clearly conscious again. The rest of them seemed too tired to do much else but what the voice had suggested.

A fuzzy hand rested on my bare hand. "Let's go" said a soft, faintly accented voice, and we disappeared from the clearing.

Hope that was a bit more interesting- I'm going to add some more comic elements later on, but for now, hope you like it!

Please review, I'm offering virtual hugs for all.

allyg1990


	3. Explantations

_Disclaimer: I don't own anything in this story apart from Cherry and her family and friends._

When we reappeared, it was in a large study not unlike the one belonging to my headmistress. A man sat behind the ornately carved mahogany desk in the middle of the room.

"Please, sit down." He said to me, and turned his head towards Kurt. "Kurt, you may leave." He said.

The fuzzy mutant turned to leave, but the man spoke again.

"And, Kurt? Unless I'm mistaken, there's a paper bag filled with hamburgers on the kitchen table with your name on it."

Kurt's golden eyes lit up as he enthusiastically replied "Thank you Professor!" and teleported out of the room.

Slowly I moved towards one of the large armchairs dotted around the room and sat on it.

The man, who I gathered to be the Professor Xavier guy from the cartoon, turned to look at me.

"What is going on?" I started to ask, but I was quickly silenced by an upraised hand.

"All will be explained." He said, and then started to speak.

"Cherry, I am Professor Xavier, the founder of this institution. I understand you have watched the television program we created?" I nodded. "So you are familiar with the idea of mutants and weren't intimidated by the students you met tonight?" I shook my head, and he smiled. "Excellent. Our idea worked." He said, and before I could ask more, he spoke again.

"Cherry, as Jean has already told you, you are a mutant with special powers. When I detected the manifestation of your powers yesterday, I discovered that you have extraordinary streams of energy encircling your body. Normally, without you even thinking about it, they circulate around you, making you invulnerable. As you found out tonight, you can channel those energy sources- to heal, and do much else besides. I'd like to offer you the opportunity to develop that power, and come and live here at the Xavier Institute for the Gifted."

I looked up at him. "What about school? My parents?" He nodded sympathetically. "I understand that your school breaks up today for a week. How about tomorrow I alert the school that you have been taken out for" He smiled "_Medical_ reasons. Tomorrow you can teleport there with Kurt and retrieve your things, and then we will visit your parents?"

"That sounds great, Professor." I said, standing up. "What do I do now?"

"I'll call one of the students to take you to a spare room. Seeing as you are already suitably attired-" A reference to my pajamas! "I suggest you go straight to bed. Tomorrow has the potential to be a very long day."

As I waited, the man put his fingers to his temples, and very quickly Jean arrived, not yet out of her mud spattered costume. She smiled at me wearily, leading me out of the door, and gently closing it behind her. As we walked, she said "It's an interesting revelation, isn't it?" I nodded, covering a yawn with one hand.

"At the moment, all I want to do is sleep. Who knows, I might wake up and find out that this _was_ all a dream!" I joked. She looked at me, her face stern. "I wouldn't go about it _that_ way. It'll make it harder to deal with when you find out that it wasn't."

We arrived at a door. "This is your room. There's a bathroom down the hallway. Get some rest. I'll see you tomorrow."

And with that she walked away.

I opened the door and walked into the room. In the dim light from the corridor I could see that it was medium sized, with a large mirror, a closet and a chest of drawers. The bed was in the middle, against a wall, fairly spacious compared to the one I was used to at boarding school- in better shape, too!

I went to the bedside table, turned on the small lamp perched on it and looked around. Then I flopped onto the bed and turned off the light, not bothering to wiggle under the covers- the window was open and a warm summer breeze filtered in past the white washed windowsill.

I lay there for what seemed like hours but in actual fact must have been mere minutes, thinking to myself. A _mutant_? How could it be? How would my parents react?

At the moment, it wasn't a sense of dread that filled me- more a sense of excitement. I had a feeling that by tomorrow night, that might have changed for the worse...

_Well, that's chapter three. Please review! I'll try to add some conflict in the next couple of chapters (thanks strayphoenix!) so keep checking back!_

_allyg1990_


	4. Introductions

Thump, thump.

Someone was knocking at the door.

Thump, thump.

I rolled over.

THUMP, THUMP.

"Katie, its Saturday." I shouted at my roommate. "Let me at least have a bit of a lie-in. You can get your stuff later, it's not like you need it in the medical wing!"

Silence. Then,

"Cherry, it's me, Jean."

Memories of the night before came rushing back at me.

"Sorry." I got up and opened the door. The older girl looked at me, wide awake and dressed. In her hands she held a set of clothes, a toothbrush and a hairbrush.

"It's eight fifteen. The professor told me that you'll have to teleport to school and get your stuff at ten, so get dressed as quickly as you can. You can borrow someone's toothpaste, they won't mind."

I took them from her. "Thanks." I said.

"You're welcome. Breakfast is usually gone by nine, so I'd hurry." She said, and walked away.

I shut the door, and flopped right back onto my bed, my hands over my eyes. It hadn't been a dream. I had always had a certain outline of my life that I wanted to follow. Being a mutant had never come into the picture.

Slowly I took my hands away from my face and looked at them. There was a scratch on the back of one I'd received several days earlier during a fencing class, before the whole mutant thing had come about. Wondering what would happen, I put one finger on the scratch and thought _Heal_.

It disappeared.

I slowly grinned. This mutant thing sure had some perks.

Then I remembered the clothes lying next to me on the bed. Jean had given me a blue t-shirt and a pair of jeans. Putting them on, I found that they were just a bit big for me, but not too drastic.

I quickly brushed my hair and re-tied it in a ponytail, then opened the door and found my way to the bathroom. The sink was awash with various sets of toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes and other cans and bottles of things, some obviously belonging to teenaged girls.

After brushing my teeth, I walked out into the corridor and saw a flight of stairs. Approaching, I heard voices seemingly belonging to a crowd of teenagers.

Hesitantly, I walked down the stairs and through another door. There sat about eight or nine teens, all vaguely familiar. As I walked in, one girl turned around and saw me.

"Hey, look, it's the girl from last night!"

Eight pairs of eyes turned to look at me, and I was sure that my skin had colored to the cherry-red tone of a tomato.

A small _pop_ and a smell of sulphur made me jump a meter to the left. Next to me stood Kurt, one three fingered hand extended.

"Hi, Cherry- we met yesterday. I'm Kurt." I shook the offered hand, the furred skin unfamiliar to the touch.

"Hi."

Several of the others stood up, coming over to shake my hand.

"Hi, I'm Scott."

"I'm Kitty."

"Jubilee."

"I'm Rahne."

"Sam."

Others sat at the table and shouted their names over the hubbub.

Finally, the boy from yesterday, looking a lot more energetic.

"Hi, I'm Bobby. You saved my life last night."

I blushed, shyly saying "It was nothing."

He motioned to an empty chair. "You'd better sit and eat something. In a couple of minutes the fuzzy dude will have eaten it all."

"Hey!" said Kurt, annoyed, as he helped himself to another serving of waffles.

"Teleporting takes a lot of energy. I need to eat this much to survive!"

Giggling, I sat down, accepting the waffle someone offered me.

"So, Cherry," asked the girl I recognized as Amara. "Tell us about yourself."

I took a deep breath, and then started. "I'm fifteen years old, um, I live in Manchester, Vermont, but I go to a boarding school in Greenvale."

The boy called Scott nodded, his red sunglasses catching the light. "That's about five miles away from here."

"Um, I have a younger sister, three dogs… My dad's American, my mom's German…That's about it, really."

Kurt's ears pricked as he asked excitedly, "German? Really? Do you speak the language at all?" I smiled.

"Ein Bisschen. We used to fly over once a year to visit my grandmother before she died. I know just enough to order myself some sausage and a donut."

The boy's eyes misted over. "Oh, for a piece of Weiss wurst! I miss the food." Kitty elbowed him.

"Your parents send you care packages full of the stuff once a month, and it's not like we like, _starve_ you or anything!" I swallowed a piece of waffle and grinned. This was turning out to be better than I thought it would.

When I'd finished my waffle coupled with several pancakes, Kurt stood up and stretched.

"It's almost ten. Ve'd better get going. I hope you haven't packed anything yet. If ve're gone long enough, I get to miss my Danger Room session."

A gruff voice filtered into the kitchen.

"You won't get off that easily, elf! I'm here all of today, I'm sure I can spare some time to give you a private session…."

Kurt's shoulders dropped. "Oh vell. It vas worth a try. Are you ready to go?" I nodded.

Suddenly one hand went to the watch on his wrist, and a furless, tailless, pale-skinned version of him appeared next to me. He put one hand on my shoulder, and said. "Let's go."

Instantly we arrived in my dormitory at school, and my face colored. Strewn around the room were clothes of all varieties. However, Kurt didn't seem to notice.

Quickly, I put all my clothes into a bag, piling in my laptop and my other electronics on top. After checking that no-one was there, I sprinted to the bathroom to grab my toothbrush and wash stuff. Once I was completely packed, I grabbed a couple of photos from the wall and put them in the top of the suitcase. 

"Finished!" I exclaimed. "We can go now." Kurt looked disappointed.

"That only took ten minutes. Oh well, the professor won't be happy if we take _too_ long."

And with one final look at the room I might never sleep in again, we teleported back to the institute.

_I know, I know, I always end with the teleporting! I'll try to mix it up for next time._

_I'm sorry that this has been slow to start, it'll get more interesting._


	5. Meet the Parents

When we reappeared, it was in the professor's study. After saying hi to the professor, Kurt promptly teleported out. I sat down once again in one of the cushy chairs.

"Cherry, I hope you realize that discussing recent events with your parents may not be easy." Said the professor.

"I know. But, they've always said that they'll love me no matter what." I said, and then added under my breath, "I hope that was actually true."

He looked at me sternly.

"I'm sure it will be fine. But we must hurry and get there before they leave to 'pick you up', as the school hasn't phoned them about your early release."

I nodded. He moved out from behind the desk, and for the first time I saw his famous motorized wheelchair, moving surprisingly fast. I moved to open the door just as it swung open of its own accord, leaving me sprawled on the floor.

Professor Xavier looked amused.

"I _can_ actually open it with one of the buttons here. The door is mechanized."

I quickly dusted myself off and picked up my bag, following him through the door. He led me through the winding corridors, until we reached a door with some sort of scanner. He placed his hand on the scanner, and with a soft clicking noise, the door slid open.

And I gasped.

There stood the legendary X-Jet in all its glory, more advanced than anything I'd ever seen before. Through the clear window of the cockpit I could see a middle-aged man, almost unrecognizable without his trademark orange costume. The legendary Wolverine.

With a loud whirring a ramp lowered from the belly of the aircraft, gently coming to rest on the concrete flooring. Professor Xavier backed his wheelchair onto it and it moved up a track. I took the stairs behind him.

The interior of the plane was just as impressive as the exterior, plush leather lining every square inch. The man inside nodded to me in greeting, his face unsmiling.

"Hey, kid. How're you holding up?"

"I'll survive." I replied, and strapped myself into one of the passenger seats.

The flight didn't take long- at the speed that I presumed that the jet could go, I wasn't surprised. When we touched down in Rutland airport, there was an inconspicuous black car waiting. All three of us entered the car- the man, who'd told me to call him Mr. Logan, drove. None of us talked much in the car- though there was much to talk about.

When my neighborhood, and then my doorstep, came into sight, the sense of dread and fear that had been quietly lurking inside my stomach intensified, taking over my body until I was silently shivering in the early June heat, the way I did before a solo in a chapel service, or before an exam. Though neither of those things were nearly as life changing as what was about to happen.

The car stopped and I got out waiting for Mr. Logan to help the professor out before I moved any further. When that was done, I slowly walked up to my door, the feeling of nausea swamping me with every step. I hesitated to touch the doorbell, my finger hovering an inch away from it.

"Today would be great, kid." Said Logan, and I winced as my finger touched the button, loud ringing audible from inside the house.

The door was opened by my mother, her hair slight more unkempt than usual.

"Cherry!" she exclaimed upon seeing me. "What are you doing here…" her voice trailed off.

"Xavier." She paled, and she seemed to fall slightly off balance.

"Sabine." Said Professor Xavier politely.

"You'd better come in." she said, her voice shaky. "David! You should come down here."

"Mom….?" She ignored me, and led the way into our living room.

Shortly afterwards my dad came in.

"Cherry!" Then, "Sabine? What's going on?"

My mom took a deep breath.

"David, this is Professor Xavier- I told you about him?"

My dad looked as if hell had just frozen over.

"Mom…Dad?" I asked. "How do you know Professor Xavier? What's going on?"

"I'll tell you, right after I learn who this other man is."

The "Other Man" spoke up.

"My name is Logan. Also known as Wolverine. But now that the formalities are over, the kid deserves some sort of explanation."

My mother turned to me.

"Cherry, I haven't been completely truthful with you. Partially because I thought you'd be ashamed. Mostly because I hoped this day would never come."

The paused for a second, then said, slowly, haltingly.

"Cherry, did you ever wonder why I could _always_ tell if you were lying, however good your excuse was?"

I frowned.

"Motherly instinct?"

She shook her head. "No, Cherry. I'm…I'm a mutant. A telepath."

I looked at my father, gob smacked.

"Dad…?" He laughed.

"I'm human enough, honey. And before you ask, I _did _know about your mom. I've always known."

I shook my head, astonished, trying to clear my thoughts. My mom, a _mutant_? How could it be? She'd always been just your average mom.

I looked at her accusingly. "Is _that_ why you got mad at me when I tried to buy the X-Men Season 1 DVD on Amazon? And you still haven't explained how you know Professor Xavier!"

She looked at me pityingly. "The reason I got mad that time was because you took my credit card without asking me. And for your other question, Professor Xavier approached my parents to ask them to let me come to the institute when I was several years younger than you. They refused- my powers weren't- aren't- very strong, so I never needed much formal training. I think they were also quite ashamed of me. And they didn't want me to have to go all the way to America."

"Oh." Was all I could say.

Professor Xavier started to talk. "Sabine, David, that is precisely why I am here. To offer Cherry a place at my school. Of course, she will be able to finish the year at her current school before attending- I understand that after this holiday there is only one week of school left to attend before the end of the school year. It would be easy to arrange for her to spend the last few days of term as a day student- I would like her to come to the institute for as often as possible as soon as possible."

My parents looked at each other, and then my dad spoke.

"The school she's at now- she's only been there for two years, and its academic record is impressive. She worked hard to get in- I'd hate for her to throw that away."

"The school which the students at the institute attend- Bayville Academy of Excellence-"

My mom nearly fell off her chair. The academy was one of the most prestigious schools in New York.

"In that television program of yours that my daughter watches they attend Bayville High School!"

The professor smiled.

"It was necessary to change some names to protect the school, and indeed our students, from media attention. Bayville High School seemed like a more suitable candidate for a 'normal' school for the show. I'm sure you will find that the Academy has much higher standards, and I'm sure that Cherry would be welcomed. It is also a day school, which would probably be more convenient than her current school, both for her and for you."

My mother looked at my dad.

"David, it's a pretty good opportunity… The Academy! And she won't feel isolated, like I did…. They can _help_ her…"

My Dad considered it. I waited in anticipation.

"All right." He said finally. "Let's see how it goes."

I nearly squealed out loud, throwing my arms around his neck.

"Thanks, Daddy! You won't regret it." I promised him.

He smiled wearily. "I hope I don't have to."

Mr. Logan stood up.

"We'd better get going now- me and Charles have got some things to do around here. We'll come back for Cherry around four."

I nodded. "See you later!"

Once they had left, my mom turned to me.

"So, sweetie. What are your powers?"

_That's about it, hope the twist wasn't too expected or soppy or whatnot._

_allyg1990_


	6. Sausage, Whistling, and Realization

By the time the Professor and Mr. Logan came to pick me up at four 'o clock, the news of my mom's mutant powers had sunk in a bit, though I still wasn't completely accustomed to the idea- I wouldn't be anytime soon. After receiving several tearful goodbyes, a hug from my little sister, a new boxful of contact lenses (My mom figured that glasses wouldn't come in handy during a fight) and a boxful of sausage for Kurt, I left the house, waving to my family as they disappeared from sight.

Once we were back on the X-Jet, Wolverine remarked:

"You're lucky we don't have to go through customs. I doubt you'd get through with all that sausage."

"I don't know where my mom got it all." I admitted. "We haven't been to Germany in the last three years."

He shrugged. "At least Kurt will be happy. I really think you should sell it to him. He'd probably pay you a hundred dollars a pound."

I laughed. "It's not like _I'm _going to eat it all, anyway." He smiled evilly.

"After this coming week, you might just need the energy. Have you done much intensive exercise before in your life?" I gulped.

"Umm… I do fencing and trampolining lessons at school and P.E. class of course." He nodded. "Well, first we've got to teach you to use your powers- the shooting energy bolts kind. The simple bit of healing you did last night won't cut it in the danger room."

"The...Danger…Room? Is it really as bad as it's portrayed to be in the cartoon?" His evil smile just got more menacing.

"Oh, believe me, it's much, much worse."

"Logan!" scolded the professor. "Don't scare her off before she's even had the chance to experience a session. Besides," he turned to me. "You'll start off with fairly simple things and basic fitness training before you do anything really dangerous."

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding, relieved. Trying to glean as much information about my coming life as I could, I asked "Could you tell me a bit about what it's going to be like the next couple of months- Routines, rules, that kind of thing?"

Professor Xavier nodded. "Well, in the next week, the rest of the students will have school as normal, as they break up two or three days before you do. We'll organize sessions for you to get in touch with the different aspects of your powers- they're quite versatile, and as I've said, healing isn't the only thing you can do. Of course, you will be expected to attend extra danger room sessions-" Queue a groan from me. "To increase your physical fitness. You won't be expected to go on missions for quite some time yet, though your ability to heal may be called upon in necessary circumstances. As for the rules side-" He looked at the other man. "From what I've heard of boarding school rules, the rules we have should be pretty similar. You can't do anything you wouldn't normally be allowed to at your age, and of course smoking, as well as alcohol and drug abuse, is not tolerated. However, looking at your academic records, I'm sure we won't face any such problems." I shook my head. "You won't."

"Good, that's settled then. Breakfast starts at nine on weekends, eight on school days." "And it's not advisable to get there late, if you actually want there to be food left for you." Added Logan.

"There isn't actually a lights-out time, but I suggest that you get to sleep before eleven. It's a tough regime, but you'll get used to it- the rest of the students certainly have."

With that the plane re-entered its tunnel and came to a halt exactly where it had started off. The Canadian pilot stood up and stretched, then looked at his watch. "It's only five thirty. I'm going to go see if I can rope Stripes and Half-Pint into another training session before dinner."

I took my bag straight up to my room and started to unpack. Once my belongings were completely put away, I changed into my own clothes and went on a hunt for Jean so I could return the ones she'd given me.

As I walked down one of the winding hallways, I was suddenly knocked sideways by someone crashing into me, seemingly out of no-where. My glasses went flying off my nose and I couldn't see who the culprit was.

I sat back up and dusted myself off, feeling around on the ground for my glasses. Shortly I felt them pressed into my hand and when I put them on, my vision wasn't much better because they were coated in several layers of dust.

"Thanks, um…." I tried to make out the face in front of me. The girl laughed.

"Kitty. I'm sorry, I phased through the wall and right into you. You'd think I would have learned to use a door by now!" I wiped my glasses on my shirt and put them back on in time to see her point to the clothes that were scattered around me and say, "By the way, those are mine- do you want me to take them for you?" I nodded.

"That would be great." I started to pick up the clothes and she bent down to help me.

"Dinner's on in about fifteen minutes." She said when the clothes were neatly piled up. "Ororo's cooking, so it should be edible." I smiled.

"Do you know where I could find Kurt? My mom gave me a boxful of sausage to give to him- turns out she's a mutant too, actually." The older girl looked at me in surprise.

"Really? I guess that like, makes it easier. My parents were pretty freaked out- they still haven't got used to it." Her voiced was lightly tinged with sorrow. She quickly shook her head to clear her thoughts and looked back up at me.

"Kurt's usually in the kitchen- he'll probably be raiding the refrigerator." I nodded.

"Thanks." With that I quickly nipped back into my room and grabbed the box of sausage, then made my way into the kitchen.

As promised, Kurt was in the kitchen, in fact stuck to the ceiling directly above the white-haired woman known as Storm.

"Please, Ororo!" he begged. "Just one bite. I'm starving!" The woman swatted away his hands and his tail.

"Kurt! Stop it. You'll get fur in my risotto."

I plunked the box down onto the table and the German's pointy ears quickly swiveled in my direction, his nose sniffing the air.

"Ach!" he sighed, putting his hands over his heart and dropping from the ceiling, teleporting before he landed on the stovetop, and reappearing by the table. "I must be dreaming."

"Nope." I smiled cheerfully. "My mom had some extra she wanted me to give you."

He looked at me, clearly restraining himself from jumping up and down.

"Danke!" He said, his voice on the verge of resembling a small child who'd been given a lifetime's supply of candy. And within seconds the box was open, and his mouth was stuffed with sausage.

The older woman looked at me, a smile on her serene face.

"I think you might just have saved our dinner." She remarked, transferring the rice into a large dish and putting it on the table. Soon the room was full of hungry students who had smelt the nutty, buttery scent of risotto wafting through the hallways.

I sat down on the closest chair, which was at the end of the table, shortly flanked by none other than Bobby.

"Heya." He said, tilting his chair back. "How'd your first official day as a mutant go?"

I smiled shyly at him. "Not bad. Turns out I'm not the only mutant in the family- my mom's a telepath." I laughed. "Still trying to get my head around it- though t ties up a lot of loose ends!" He gave a low whistle.

"You know, I've always wanted to be able to do that." I said, changing the subject.

He looked at me incredulously. "You can't whistle?" I shook my head.

"Nope. Never have been. When I was Anna Leonowens in our school production of _The King and I_ someone else had to whistle for me." He grinned cheekily.

"I'll have to teach you then, won't I?" I nodded. "That would be great. I won't have to hum whenever I sing along to _I Whistle A Happy Tune_ with my little sister."

Changing the subject, he said, "I still can't get over the whole healing thing from last night. It didn't even leave a scar." He went as far as the pull up his shirt to prove his point, revealing toned abs under his pale skin.

"I'm just glad it worked- it was all a bit risky, not the ideal time to first use your powers."

"Just wait." He said. "You'll get precision, it just takes time. When I first started it was just simple bolts of ice. Now I can do this." He cupped his hands together, frowned, and then opened them, revealing a tiny ice sculpture of the miniature rosebush in one of the pots opposite the table, complete with miniature blossoms.

I let out a soft "Oh", amazed. "It's beautiful." He grinned, depositing it into my glass of water and drying his hands on his napkin.

"Yeah. But they don't last long." I gazed regretfully at the beautiful piece of ice slowly disintegrating into my drink, interrupted by the person sitting opposite me.

"Don't let the ice man charm yah." Warned a drawling southern voice. My cheeks colored slightly, and I looked up at Rogue, her striped strands of hair dangerously close to the risotto.

"I'll try not to." I smiled, receiving only a _humph_ in return, not that I expected much. Her publicized reputation for being distant had made sure of that. Besides, I hadn't expected _anybody_ to warm to me so quickly- after all, I'd only been around 24 hours.

For the next few minutes I simply listened, eating my rice in silence. Between Kitty jabbering away to an uninterested Rogue, and Jean and Scott's discussion about colleges, there was a fair amount of talking going on that was nice to listen to and just…_absorb_…the atmosphere, in a bid to learn more about the people I'd be living with.

Then Amara looked at me, a devilish grin on her face. "I hear Logan's got you down for extra danger room sessions tomorrow."

I turned to her. "Is it really that bad?" I inquired. Thirteen year old Jamie piped up.

"Whatever you think it's going to be like, it will definitely be _worse._" Everyone laughed.

"Don't vorry." Said Kurt soothingly. "It's not _that_ bad. Besides, you're invulnerable, aren't you? If you get hit, you can just get right back up and keep on valking."

I put my face in my hands. "It's the 'excessive amounts of exercise' I'm worried about." I said, my voice muffled by my fingers. "I don't think I'm invulnerable to exhaustion."

When dinner was over I walked back to my room, and got out my laptop. Kitty had mentioned that the mansion had very good wireless internet, so I sat on my bed and opened up my laptop.

I had two emails, one from my parents and one from my roommate, Katie.

_Hey Cherry, _it said. _Heard you had to get home early because you were sick. Hope you didn't catch it from me. _I smiled. Fat chance of that.

_Oh well, I'm practically in isolation over here- my sister's got a musical performance this weekend and doesn't want to catch it, my parents don't want to have to stay home from work, and my brothers want to be healthy for their soccer matches. So it's just me and my laptop. _Oh well, at least your life hasn't been turned upside down.

_Well I guess I'll see you in school next Sunday if we're both better by then!_

_Katie_

_xxx_

Reading her letter, I was suddenly aware that after the next couple of weeks, I might never see her- or any of my boarding school friends- again. Or at least, I wouldn't see them nearly as often. My friends, my family, _I was leaving them all behind_.

I looked at my hands, glowing faintly pink when I called on my powers. Gritting my teeth, I concentrated, watching the haze form a heavier beam. Letting it die, I continued my thought. _All for this._

I still wasn't sure what I thought of the whole thing- it was exciting, yes, and pretty cool, but now deeper, angrier feelings were emerging.

All my life, I'd been striving to be more perfect, to act more normal, stop saying stupid stuff, to _fit in._ Now, I didn't need to worry about that. Because whatever happened, especially if the existence of mutants became common knowledge, I would never truly be able to.

_There's chapter 6 for you, hope I developed the character a bit more._

_allyg1990_


	7. Cartoons, Power Control, and Danger Room

_Disclaimer: Only the OC's are mine. And the plot._

_Here goes chapter 7- The first power control and danger room sessions await._

I woke up the next morning at seven, realizing, to my embarrassment, that I'd fallen asleep over my book the night before, fully clothed. After my private rant, I'd had a shower and then politely declined to watch the _Texas Chainsaw Massacre_ with the younger mutants. I just hoped their comments about it being less gory than some of their battles with the likes of the Acolytes and Magneto weren't as serious as they seemed. Instead, I went and read a couple of chapters from a book I'd brought with me, shoved into my suitcase as I packed. It wasn't particularly good, but still, it was an escape from everything.

Yawning, I put the book away and changed, brushing the hair that could never make up its mind to be blonde or brunette. After washing up and brushing my teeth I started to walk back to my room interrupted only by a surprisingly cheerful Logan.

"Well, well." He said. "Look who got up early for her first danger room session." I gulped.

"I…I thought that was after breakfast?" I stuttered. "And don't I have to learn to use my powers first?"

Luckily the appearance of Storm, still in her costume, cape and all, saved me.

"She's right, Logan." She chided. "First, she's got power control-with _me._"

"Fine." He growled, deprived of a torture session. Then, with a pointed look at me, he added, "I'll see you later though, kiddo."

I turned to her. "Thanks." She smiled.

"I thought that today would be hard enough with breakfast, let alone without. Ask one of the students to show you where the danger room is, around ten 'o clock. We'll have our session then." She continued walking to wherever her destination was.

Hearing voices, I decided to venture down the stairs to see who was up. I found that the culprits were Kurt and Jamie, fighting over the remote.

"I wanna watch the Saturday morning cartoons!"

"Nein! I haf to vatch reruns from last night! Logan made me do extra danger room sessions and I didn't get to vatch them!"

Then they saw me.

"Hi, Cherry." Said Kurt sheepishly.

"We didn't wake you up, did we?" asked Jamie.

"Nope." I answered, and sat down beside them. "I've been up for a while now. What are you watching?"

Kurt looked at the younger boy.

"I give in, vee can watch the cartoons. Though don't you think you are a leetle bit too old for zat?"

Jamie shook his head happily.

"You're never too old to watch cartoons. Let's see what's on."

Soon the X-Men theme song radiated into the room.

"Ach, nein!" Cried Kurt, clutching his head, as his cartoon version punched a cartoon Magneto. "Not zees again!"

Jamie however laid back and enjoyed the show, eyebrows wriggling.

"It's fun to be famous," he sighed. "And I no longer split into a million Jamies every time I bump into someone."

"So," I asked. "All those other people in the cartoons, like the Acolytes and X23 and Nick Fury, are they actually real?"

Jamie nodded.

"Well, the Acolytes are real, we all got kind of chummy after the whole Apocalypse thing. He was real too, though he looks a lot grosser in real life. Anyway, they didn't really join us, though we're still on good terms. Gambit runs errands for the Prof sometimes, though whenever Pyro comes over he tends to burn stuff, and Bobby has to keep him in check. As for X23," he whistled.

"She's real enough, and those claws _hurt_ when she pokes you with them. They call her Laura now, but she's off doing something at the moment. And Fury? He's real too; he thought it was hilarious when he got put in a kids show."

He thought to himself, then remarked, "Mystique and Magneto are real. We haven't really seen them since. Of course, the humans never did find out about us, which was just for the sake of the show. Man, it was hard to conceal the pyramids and all from the public though. I remember Storm was at it creating mist practically 24/7. Before she got captured by Apocalypse, of course."

"And the brotherhood?" Kurt laughed.

"I steel find it funny how they acted when zey did ze show with us. Of course they only wanted the fame. Zey never realized how badly they vere portrayed. We had to get stand-ins for Mystique and Magneto, and of course Apocalypse. He vasn't able to get out of wherever he got sent in time for the recordings." He sniggered. Then winced as his character said: _"Chicks dig the fuzzy guy!"_

"If I hear zat line one more time I might just kill ze TV." He moaned. "I don't know vat possessed me to say zat. Keety still teases me about it."

Jamie looked at me. "Which cereal do you prefer, Cornflakes or Coco Pops?"

"Anything chocolaty." I admitted. "Cornflakes just don't have enough sugar." With a snap of his fingers, several Jamies jumped into place around the couch and started to walk to the kitchen, some grabbing boxes and cartons out of the fridge and cupboards, others fetching cutlery and bowls, and others still assembling the breakfast. As our bowls were handed to us, Jamie sighed.

"Now this is the life." He said, and started to eat.

After we'd watched several episodes, punctuated by Kurt's groans of "Turn it off! Turn it off!" the other students started to filter downstairs. Jamie set several duplicates to washing up the dishes, and at ten 'o clock a fairly perky Jubilee lead me down to the danger room. The door opened, and I tentatively walked inside.

There stood Ororo, still fully suited.

"Come in, Cherry." She said. "There isn't anything in here that's going to start shooting at you. At least, not yet."

She looked at my clothes. "A fairly suitable choice of clothing, though we will provide you a costume soon. I do believe that it will be ready by the time your training session with Wolverine is due to begin." I laughed nervously.

"I guess it's better than ruining my clothes." I said. She nodded.

"You know how to call on your powers, don't you?" I nodded. "Good. Try to focus that mild energy you used to heal Bobby into a stronger, more forceful beam." After last night, this was easier. Quickly bolts of pinkish light radiated from my hands, harmlessly bouncing off the ceiling.

After that I had to hit stationary targets, then moving ones. As calling up the energy bolts got easier, I felt more and more tired. When we'd finished, my technique was adequate, though far from perfected, and I had several bruises from where the bolts had rebounded. Summoning up the little energy I had left, I lightly brushed my hands over them, grinning as they gave way to new, perfect skin.

By the time I'd retied my hair and washed my face, lunch was ready. After eating several helpings of pasta, I felt a lot better.

When lunch was over, Logan came up to me, a package in his hands.

"This is your costume, kid. Suit up and come down to the Danger Room in ten minutes."

I put my head down on the cardboard of the box and groaned.

"Now, if you do that, Logan might think you don't actually _want_ to do his danger room session. He'd be _so_ upset."

I looked up to see the brunette iceman grinning at me.

"Ha-ha, very funny, Bobby." I muttered. Then I ripped open the package. In it was the classic New Mutant costume, exactly my size. How they'd figured out what size I was, I couldn't say. I ran a finger over the material, soft yet strangely durable.

I motioned to it. "Do you still wear one of these?" Bobby shook his head.

"Me? Nah. I graduated to my own one a couple of months ago. It's pretty cool- black with blue parts. And it doesn't go all wet and soggy when I unfreeze myself."

I looked back down at my costume. "Well, I'd better go and change into this. I don't want to get shredded by Wolverine before I've started the session."

As I turned away, I heard a faint "Good Luck!" echoing from down the corridor. I spun around, flashing a smile.

"Thanks."

When I'd changed and walked down to the danger room, I stepped inside, and gasped. All sorts of guns and cannons were pointed straight at me. Wolverine stood in the middle of the room, smiling evilly.

"Don't worry." He said. "They just shoot light beams. For now. But it's still a good idea to avoid them. 'Ro taught you how to shoot bolts, so you shouldn't have any problems taking out those guns. Try to doge the rays if you can, it's better practice for later. I'll be up in the control room up there-" he indicated it. "-so give me a shout if you need me to stop it."

_What have I gotten myself into?_ I wondered, and then scolded myself. _Relax, Cherry. It's just light beams. They can't hurt you. Remember trampolining classes? Just jump out of the way as if you're doing one of those. _

With a whir of cogs and clockwork mechanisms, the session started. The guns started to move, firing bolts of light at me as I dodged out the way. Bolts of shocking pink light flew from my hands, exploding the machines altogether. Again and again they fired, with me twisting and rolling out of the way. The self defense and gymnastics courses I'd taken when I was little were coming back to me as I darted past the light beams, unaware that I was being watched.

Above me, in the danger room, Logan let out a low whistle. Scott Summers stood behind him, remarking casually, "She's good."

"Yup." Replied Wolverine. "Those extra sport lessons she told me she took have been paying off.

They watched as I kicked off a wall, doing a turntable in midair and smashing a gun with my left foot, exploding another with a bolt of energy.

"That invulnerability is useful." Commented the Canadian. "Even I would be a bit winded after some of those falls she's taking, but she just gets right back up and keeps fighting."

Finally the guns retreated, and the session stopped. I stood, hands on knees, panting. Normally I would have been in the medical wing after some of those knocks, but they hadn't even hurt. I was amazed at how much I remembered from the Judo and gym classes all those years ago. They were definitely worth the time and effort.

A voice sounded over a loudspeaker.

"Shower up, kid. The session's over." Then, more hesitantly. "You did good."

_There, that's chapter seven- hope it was a bit more interesting. I wasn't going to make her good at the danger room stuff, but I couldn't resist. I live the ideal life through my stories. And I just realized how cheesy that sounds._

_allyg1990_


	8. Shopping and Awkward Conversations

_Disclaimer: Only the OC's are mine. And the plot._

_Hope you liked the last chapter- here's the next one! I wanted to add a bit of girly bonding fun, and I leetle bit of fluff… Hope it isn't TOO cheesy!_

Coming out of the danger room, I was glad to feel (since I'd healed up my muscles) that nothing hurt, but that I was tired. As I walked down the corridor to the girls changing room, I caught sight of Scott, fully suited up, visor and all.

"Hey." He said. "I was watching the last bit of your session. Not bad for a first time." I grinned.

"I never thought the flips and things I learned in _trampolining_ of all sports would be worth something. Using the energy blasts really wore me out though."

"It gets easier." He said. "Even by the end of the week, you'll be able to go for twice the time. I don't know where they're going to find injured people for you to practice healing, though." I laughed.

"Well, I've got a session now, so see you at dinner."

"Good luck." I said, and continued on my way.

When I'd showered and changed, I bumped into Kitty, Amara and Jubilee walking towards the front hall, purses in hand.

"Hi Cherry!" said Amara. "Would you like to come to the mall with us? It's not far, and we still have a couple of hours before dinner."

I thought about it. My parents _had_ given me a cash card since I wasn't going to see them as often, and since the Academy didn't have a uniform, I _was_ going to need some more casual clothes.

"Cool, thanks." I said. "Just let me get my wallet."

When that was done, we all piled into the X-Van. Kitty, being all of 16, had her driving license and manned the wheel.

"So," asked Jubilee. "How was your first danger room session?"

"Not bad." I said thoughtfully. "I guess it helps when it doesn't hurt when you hit stuff. And it was only light beams this time. Thanks to being able to heal, I don't have a single bruise." Then, as an afterthought. "Yet."

Amara giggled. "You said your school wasn't far, have you ever been to this mall?" I sighed wistfully.

"We were never allowed out." I said. "And if we were, just in the vicinity. My real home's in Vermont so I never went there out of school."

"Don't worry." Put in Jubilee. "Kitty knows her way round well enough for the four of us."

The older girl gave her a playful smack.

"That is like, _so_ not true. I don't know where everything is. I don't know where the shop that sells like, kitchenware is."

"That's because the professor erases the location from your mind every time you manage to find it." Said Amara knowledgeably. "He doesn't want to encourage you to cook."

"Aaargh!" shouted Kitty, causing the old woman in the car next to us to jump out of her seat in fright. "What has everyone got against my cooking???"

"Nothing much." Said Jubilee. "Just the fact that it POISONS you. That time you made Kurt a birthday cake he spent two days in the med wing."

Kitty looked at her. "It was a stomach bug!" The other girl shook her head.

"Nope. It was food poisoning."

Kitty deflated. "Oh. I guess he like, didn't want to hurt my feelings."

"Well, he _did _avoid you for the next few weeks." Amara pointed out.

At that moment we pulled up in front of the mall. Kitty told us to meet her at some clothes shop and then went to park the van.

The girls showed me where the ATM was and I took out some money. Then we headed over to the shop we were going to meet Kitty at. It was a cute, moderately priced store with lots of nice things. When Kitty arrived we each had a large pile of clothes to try on.

Soon Kitty joined us, her pile significantly larger.

"What are you like, waiting for? Go try them on!" She instructed us.

When we emerged, Kitty was wearing one of her usual cute ensembles, Amara was dressed in red skinny jeans and a white top embellished with flames, and Jubilee had swapped her usual yellow coat for a blue one. I was quite happy with my new outfit: pale pink skinnies, a white t-shirt emblazoned with the word 'CHERUB' in red stencil letters, and a pair of white flats. After being complimented on my choice, we checked out and headed to the Ben and Jerry's on the other side of the mall.

"Hot fudge, or whipped cream? It's such a _hard_ decision!" Moaned Kitty.

"Why not just have both?" I asked, confused. She sighed.

"I guess I'll just overdose on sugar today and like, not eat any popcorn during tonight's movie. Oh well, it's probably worth it. What are you guys having?"

"Strawberry frozen yoghurt." Jubilee answered promptly.

"Cinnamon." Said Amara, and when we looked at her as if she was crazy she replied "What? It's new." After further thought she added, "And it's _fiery_." Kitty groaned.

"What about you, Cherry?"

"Chocolate fudge brownie with extra fudge sauce and chocolate sprinkles." I announced proudly. Kitty shuddered.

"How can you eat all that? And in an extra-large serving?" she demanded. I shrugged.

"I have a fast metabolism. And I just had my first danger room session. I feel like I deserve it."

"Suit yourself."

By the time we'd done a full tour, it was nearing five thirty. The drive back was fairly quiet, as most of us were silently working on our ice creams.

When we arrived back, Amara, Jubilee and Kitty all had an extra training session with Logan, so I emailed my parents a couple of lines about how it was going, and then flopped onto the couch. Outside I could see Roberto, Sam and Ray playing a game of (mutant) soccer, blatantly using every means possible, including powers, to gain possession. Roberto was winning, mainly because he was hovering with the ball balanced on one foot several feet above the heads of the other two boys.

As I looked out the window, I felt another person flop down beside me. Bobby again.

"I hear your dreaded danger room session wasn't so bad."

I grinned. "It was pretty cool actually. I didn't feel a thing when I fell or smashed into things, and it was fun to twist and roll in midair. When it doesn't hurt when you get it wrong, it's easier to take the risk, I guess."

He grinned back at me. "I never had that feeling, though I guess I can always make myself an ice ramp if I act quickly enough. Still hurts though. Was Logan satisfied?"

I shrugged. "He said, 'You did good, kid'" I repeated, putting on a gruff Canadian accent. Bobby looked fairly incredulous.

"On your first session? That's pretty high up, coming from Wolverine. He almost never praises me. Though that could be because he's almost always the target of the bits of ice I leave on the corridor floors."

I giggled. "It must be a real pain for him."

"But it's funny for us." Bobby interjected, then asked,

"Have you given any thought to your codename yet?" I shook my head.

"Nope. I've only been here two days."

"What about that?" He pointed to my new shirt.

"Cherub? I'm not fat and I don't play the trumpet!"

"No," he agreed. "You're definitely not fat, and you can always ask Kitty to teach you how to play the trumpet, or trombone, or whatever brass instrument she plays. But you _are_ cute, and your powers are kind of glowing pinkish."

I glared at him, trying to convince myself that my red cheeks on the word "cute" were because I was angry.

"'Cute' is for five year olds." I informed him. "I hope you don't mean I look like a toddler."

He sighed. "No, I meant cute, as in 15 year old cute. You aren't remotely toddler-ish."

"I'm glad you think so." I mumbled, and then hurriedly got off the couch.

"I've, um, got to go, um, clean out my purse." I muttered, thinking of the first excuse possible. I wasn't very good at going through with awkward conversations.

"Think it over." He called after me. I turned around, quickly saying,

"I will. Thanks." and then continuing on my way.

_Sorry that this one's a little shorter than the last two- I wanted to end with the fluff!_

_More reviewsMore chapters!!_

_allyg1990_


	9. Surprising Encounter

_Disclaimer: Only the OC's are mine. And the plot._

_Cue the arrival of one of my favorite characters, X-23! And more fluff. Boy, is fluff fun to write!_

The next day all the other students had school, so I woke up to the sounds of footsteps at around seven fifteen. I didn't join them for their early danger room session though- it would probably be several weeks before I did.

When they'd all had breakfast and left, I had a sequence of danger room sessions, and more power training. By the end of the day the lasers shooting at me were real, and I felt myself last longer and longer, my beams getting stronger as the day progressed.

When my sessions were over for the day, I still had an hour or so to have a hot bath before the others returned from school at around four. The heat was welcome, soothing the muscles I wasn't able to unknot with my currently limited reserves of energy. After dinner, when most of the students did their homework, I was roped in for one more training session, forcing me to have another shower before dropping into bed, exhausted.

In the middle of the night I woke up, crawling out of my bed to go to the bathroom. I tiptoed silently around the hallway, trying not to wake anyone up.

To my surprise, I turned the corner only to have two sharp claws pointed at my neck.

I tried not to scream as the person switched on the hall lights, saw who I was and retracted the claws.

"Oh." Said the girl, a brunette around my age, dressed in plain black fighting clothes.

"You're the new girl. Sorry about that. I caught your scent as I came in through the window and didn't recognize it, so I decided to investigate. I'm X-23. Call me Laura."

By this point my heart rate was rocketing through the roof and I was aware that my fingers were going into little spasms every couple of seconds.

"Hi." I said nervously. "I'm… I'm Cherry." She gave a curt nod, her face void of embarrassment or any emotion for that matter.

"I'll see you tomorrow then. I don't attend the Academy- Beast teaches me here. I'm too liable to injure someone I get mad at." She added as she popped her claws again, the adamantium glinting in the soft hall lights. Without another sound, she stalked out into the dark, leaving me petrified but otherwise unharmed.

Beast- another person I hadn't yet met. Since I hadn't had to go to the Med Wing yet, I hadn't seen him. Apparently he kept himself holed up in there most of the time, studying something or another.

Having made it back to my room without any further surprises, I went back to sleep.

The next day, walking down to one of my danger room sessions, I bumped into Laura yet again. This time, her claws were _not_ pointed at my neck. She was fully suited up, ready for a quick session before mine.

"Wanna watch?" She asked me, her grin slightly on the dangerous side.

"Sure." I said. "I've got twenty minutes until mine." Her grin didn't waver an inch.

"It won't take more than five."

She stalked into the danger room, and I went up into the control room, where Logan was waiting. He grinned at me, his smile an exact mirror of hers.

"Come to see the show? It should be interesting. That kid gets all we got- more than I get, as a matter of fact. And she takes 'em all down every time. Charles had to get seven new guns installed in the first two months after she joined."

I tried to whistle, remembered that Bobby hadn't taught me how yet, and ended up spluttering. Logan didn't notice. His eyes were fixed on the petite brunette standing in the middle of the danger room.

"X-23's run, Activate." He said into a little microphone. At once guns burst out from the walls and the floor began to ripple. Laura began to dart back and forth, spinning with a speed and accuracy that filled me with a deep-set feeling of envy.

As promised, within five minutes the whole session was over, and she walked out, a smirk set on her face.

"I wish I could be as good as that." I sighed, my chin resting on my hands.

"You're not half bad, kid." Said Logan. "But you've only been training for two days, and she's been a trained assassin all her life. She's going to be somewhat better than you. Now go and get in there so you can start to catch her up."

The session went slightly better than usual. I incapacitated almost all of the guns and did my first back flip on solid ground. Needless to say, it felt good, though adamantium claws would have been a bonus feature. The energy field around my body got weaker during the time I used my bolts, but came back when I wasn't using them, so I was careful not to multitask in that way and hurt myself.

That day when I walked into the dining room to see what was for lunch, I saw Laura standing over the stove, looking down at several raw pieces of chicken breast sitting in a pan.

When she saw me come in and stare at her, she growled, "They won't cook."

I went over to inspect it, and realized the problem. "You haven't turned the ring on."

"Oh. I never was very good at this kind of cooking. Give me a deer and a campfire any day." Her expression on any other person might be deemed a sense of weakness, but I didn't allow the thought to cross my mind.

"What are you making?" I asked her.

"Chicken. I guess if I turn the ring on and poke them around a little they'll cook." She replied, uttering the words as if they were a curse.

"Here, let me have a go at livening it up." I said, scared of what she might say, but on the other hand, scared at what we might have to eat if I didn't interfere. I rummaged around in the fridge.

"Hmm, we've got peppers, pak choi, spinach, mushrooms, soy sauce, honey… Do you know if there's any cornstarch in one of the cupboards?" I asked tentatively. She glared at me.

"What the heck is cornstarch?" It was more of a rhetorical question, so I didn't answer it. After looking in many of the cupboards, I found that there was indeed a box of cornstarch.

"Look, if you make a sauce from some soya sauce, honey, lemon juice and a little bit of ginger, and add some cornstarch, when you cook it, it goes thick, not watery like it is now." I explained. She nodded, clearly not understanding a word I was saying.

I gave her the full pan. "Take these out and cut them into finger sized pieces." She smiled.

"Now that's something I _can_ do." She said, and happily starting chopping away.

When she'd done that, and I'd handled the vegetables, I reclaimed the chicken and put it in the pan, this time turning the ring on. I handed her the wooden spatula thingies.

"Now just toss them around every couple of minutes until they get a kind of golden brownish crust. Don't let them burn." Then we added the vegetables, and finally the sauce. She was quite surprised when it suddenly turned black and gooey.

"Now I know what you mean. That _is_ thick." She commented. At that moment Logan entered, sniffing the air.

"Something smells good. Who's cooking what?" He asked. I pointed at Laura.

"She just did her first chicken stir fry." I said proudly. The elbow in my side left a bruise, seeing as she was several inches shorter and hit my hip.

"If you hadn't helped I'd still be standing over a bunch of raw chicken in a cold pan." She said.

"On second thought, I don't care who cooked it, I just want to eat it." Said Wolverine. "Ororo will be here any minute." He promised, and helped himself to a large plateful.

By the time we had sat down and started to eat, the weather witch had joined us. When she sat down, Logan started to talk.

"So, Laura." he asked. "You never told me where you've been the last five days." The clone rolled her eyes.

"Dad, I just had to go out and hunt around a little. Don't tell me you don't do it."

"Hopefully neither of you hunt anything vaguely human." Remarked Ororo dryly.

"The closest I've gotten in the last year or so was a stray monkey." Promised Laura. "It's kind of hard _not _to hunt humans when you're a trained weapon."

She and Logan then started an animated conversation about the latest gun models, so Storm turned to me to talk to.

"How have your recent session been going?" she asked.

"Pretty good." I said, grinning. "Though I got to watch Laura's this morning. Very humbling."

Seeing that I'd finished, she said, "Could you do me a favor and take a plateful up to Dr. McCoy? The med wing's down the corridor and to the right." She said. I obeyed, knocking on the metal door. It split open, allowing me to walk through.

In the far corner, hunched over a large computer, sat a humanoid mutant with blue fur, presumably Dr McCoy, or Beast. I cautiously inched closer, and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Um, Dr. McCoy?" I said. "I brought you lunch." He turned his face around.

"Hmm? Oh, lunch. Thank you…" He peered at my face. "You must be Cherry." He stood up and pumped my hand. "Actually, I've been meaning to call you up for your medical." I gulped. He laughed.

"No, I won't be sticking needles into you. I don't even know if your powers would make that possible. Please, if you'll just lie on this examining table, and I'll connect you to the machine. It does a full body scan, and can analyze blood type and your powers as well." As I lay on the table, he kept on talking.

"So, I hear you can heal? Good, that'll be useful up here- we'll get you to practice on people after their training sessions. That'll be useful after missions too, especially for Kurt- you wouldn't have thought it, but he hates having stitches." I grimaced.

"So do I"

He smiled. "With luck, if you aren't caught off guard and knocked out, you won't have to have stitches again." The machine emitted a high _beep_ and he looked at the computer.

"Well, you're in perfect health, and your blood type is A positive. Your powers…" He tapped several keys.

"Ah, just as the professor suspected. Energy fields that you can manipulate at will. And your control is pretty good with the limited training. Ororo and Logan must have been putting you through the works."

"You can say that again." I muttered, and then brightened. "Though the danger room sessions are sometimes fun. Tiring, but fun."

Beast nearly fell off his chair.

"I've only ever heard Laura and Logan refer to danger room sessions as 'fun', and they were both created to think that slashing things was entertaining."

"It's a LOT more entertaining when you can do fun stuff like dive and flip and not get hurt for your efforts." I explained.

"Ah. That explains it." He said weakly. Then he nodded to the stir-fry. "Thanks for lunch. I thought Laura was on lunch duty, but she usually orders in pizza- she likes scaring the delivery boy."

"She _did_ actually cook that." I put in. "I helped her with what to do, though." He smiled.

"In that case, thanks for saving lunch. Last time she tried to cook, _Kitty_ was the one helping her. Needless to say, the Medical Wing was much fuller than usual."

"Well," I said, checking my watch. "I'd better go. I've got another danger room session before the others get back."

"Would you come up at around seven thirty? That's when the session with most of the kids in it will finish, and I'll probably have someone who's injured for you to practice on."

"Sure." I said, and walked out.

That night, after dinner, Bobby caught me half an hour before his session.

"You want to take me up on my offer to teach you to whistle?" he asked.

"That would be great." I said, and he smiled.

"Outside would be better, there's less chance of anyone getting annoyed." He said wisely.

"Makes sense." I agreed, and we headed out.

I hadn't had much of a chance to explore the grounds yet, and the gazebo we went to was new to me.

"Okay, make your lips into an 'o' shape, like this." He demonstrated. I obliged.

"Good, now put your tongue behind your teeth, and blow." He instructed. I spluttered.

He grinned. "It takes a _lot_ of practice. It took me over a month." I sighed.

"Well, you could always use one of these." He added, opening his cupped hands yet again to reveal a slotted pipe of ice. "A whistle." Before I could think about it, I punched him in the arm.

"That's cheating." I admonished. He shrugged.

"You should know by now that a good prankster like me gets nowhere without cheating. But it _does_ work. Here, try it." He offered it to me, and I nearly dropped it.

"Aah! It's cold." I slowly brought it to my lips, shivering as it froze the delicate skin. When I blew, the sound that came out was beautiful, like the birdsong that you hear in the early morning, when you know only you and the birds are awake. "That's pretty."

"They're nice." He said, cheeks coloring ever so slightly. Looking at his empty wrist, he said, "Well, I have danger room now. See you later." I nodded.

"Don't get yourself hurt, or I'll have to heal you again." I warned him. "I'm doing duty with Dr. McCoy." He laughed, his usual cheekiness back.

"Give you an express lift back to the door?" He offered. I cocked my head, confused, and distinctly aware of my resemblance to a cocker spaniel.

"A lift?" He laughed again, and reached out to take my hand.

"Like this." And suddenly I was pulled along a slippery slope of ice directly to the door. The ice disappeared behind us, watering the lawn as it melted.

"They don't last long in the heat." He said mournfully. "I really have to keep contact for that."

"Thanks for the ride." I said, tried to walk off, slipped, and fell on my backside.

"Sorry." He said, as he pulled me up again.

"Now I know how Wolverine feels." I groaned, not wanting to heal myself in front of him.

"Bye." He said, and walked away to change.

I rubbed my head, a feeling of slight confusion surfacing. About what? I couldn't tell.

_Yay! I'm getting the hang of not ending the chapter with a 'port. Reviewers still get a virtual hug and a virtual cookie. Or ice whistle. You pick. _

_allyg1990_


	10. Cue the Prince of Thieves

_Disclaimer: Only the OC's are mine. And the plot._

_Okay, here goes chapter 10. Yet more fluff. What fun. And no, I'm not doing Gambit's accent. I barely manage to do a little of Rogue's and Kurt's. And seeing as i've never heard a real Cajun accent, i wouldn't know where to start._

As promised, at seven thirty I left for the med wing. When I arrived, there were three people sitting on a bench waiting, Beast came up to me.

"Ah, Cherry, there you are. We've got a couple of patients for you- Sam's got a gash on his leg, Rahne has a scratch on her cheek, and Bobby insists that he has a giant bruise on his chest, though I can't seem to find it."

First I went to Sam, who rolled up his trouser leg to show a two-inch long gash. Dr. McCoy had stopped the bleeding, but it still looked painful. As I put my finger on it, he winced.

"Sorry, this will just take a second." I apologized and concentrated. _Heal_ I thought and the wound began to close up. He grinned at me.

"It's a great day when you can help a guy skip the stitches. I'm almost as bad as Kurt."

I smiled. "You should be able to walk on that okay, and it shouldn't hurt when you touch the area."

Next I went on to Rahne. Her scratch wasn't too bad, but if it wasn't healed quickly, it might leave a scar. I fixed it, and she was happy when she saw no trace after looking in the mirror.

Then Bobby. He pulled up his shirt, once again revealing the taut muscles.

"It's here, I swear. Hurts like anything when I poke it." He said, though his cheeky smile convinced me that he was pulling a stunt. I put a finger to the appointed area and nearly drew back. His skin was icy cold. Frowning, I tried to put healing energy into the non-existent bruise, but only a little of it got accepted.

"Well, that's all I can do, Bobby. Hope you feel better." I said, deciding to play along. I discovered that his lips were icy too as he kissed my hand.

"I feel better already, Nurse Cherry." He said, and walked out, leaving me more confused than anything else. Dr. McCoy sighed.

"That boy's still as mischievous and flirty as ever." He grumbled, flopping back into his armchair, which sank with a groan of the springs. "Thanks for helping the others, though. Sam really could do without stitches, though he doesn't fuss that much. Kurt goes into a full blown panic attack. Oh yes, get back to whatever you were doing." He said, seeing me pace from foot to foot. "I'll see you tomorrow at the same time."

The next couple of days passed fairly similarly, though the senior team did get called out onto one mission. I was called up early in the morning, because Kurt had a bad gash on his back and I needed to heal him. When I entered the room the boy was crying hysterically. It kind of scared me, coming from a seventeen year old.

"Nein! Nein!" He was wailing. "Don't make me have ze steetches!"

"Um, Kurt," I said, coming up behind him to get to the wound. "It's easier to heal you when I can actually see the wound." He was clutching his shirt to his back, the blood seeping through. He looked up at me, his golden eyes welling with tears.

"You von't make me have steetches?" he asked.

"No." I assured him. "You won't feel a thing." I promised. Reluctantly he lifted up his shirt, I placed my finger on the wound, and sure enough, it was gone within seconds.

"There you go." I said. "All gone. You don't even have a scar. You might want to wash that shirt though, it's soaked through. Use warm water." I said knowledgeably.

"Danke." He said, inspecting his back.

"No problem." I grinned. "Us Germans have to stick together, right?" He laughed.

"I am going to be so embarrassed in ze morning." He sighed. Then his face lit up. "But now i think i deserve some of zat wurst!" And he 'ported away, leaving behind nothing but some smoke and the smell of sulfur. Then he reappeared sheepishly.

"Sorry, I vill 'port you back to your room." He said, latched onto my arm, and dropped me off.

The next day was a Monday, time for me to get back to school. The other students, being boarders, had returned the next night. I was accompanied by Professor Xavier, who needed to talk to the school to smooth some things out, and Logan, who insisted on hauling my bag, now filled with my books and my laptop, up to my desk.

He got several strange looks from some of the eleven year old younger students, to which he replied, "What are you looking at, bub?" eliciting little squeaks of terror from the scurrying girls.

Once he'd dropped off my bag and left, my friend and former roommate ran up to me.

"Are you all right? Why didn't you come back last night? Your room is stripped bare! You emailed me saying you were better!" She demanded. I took a deep breath.

"Um, Katie, I don't know how to say this, but I'm…I'm going to be a day student for the rest of the term- I'm leaving at the end of the year." She looked at me as if I were crazy.

"Why? I thought you liked it here."

"I do, it's just… I've been accepted into the Academy. I'm going to stay with some… family friends while I attend." She glared at me.

"So now a school that's marginally better than this one is more important than your friends? You know what, that's fine. Just don't expect me to sign your leaving card." And she stalked off.

"Katie! Wait!" But she was gone.

She eventually got used to the idea of me leaving, and we made up, but she never really forgave me. School, since we'd already done our end of term exams, was an easy, fun time. I went back to the academy at night though, driven back or secretly teleported by Kurt if the X-Van was being used.

The last night of term, I got permission to stay for a midnight feast, in which we all raided people's dorms and stayed up all night drinking red bull and scoffing pixie sticks. The next day we were a lot worse for wear, but, not surprisingly, fairly energetic. During the prize giving ceremony I got given a ginormous card which I promptly put on my wall when I arrived back at the institute.

For the first week of the three-month-long summer holidays, I went to visit my parents, like most of the other X-Kids, as we younger mutants were labeled. On my return, I found that summer wasn't quite as challenging as the ordinary school year- the institute had a giant swimming pool, for one, which was always accessible.

One night, as I was sitting at the table sipping some cocoa when Rogue entered and made herself a coffee, looking a lot more harassed than usual.

"Are you OK?" I asked, still wary of the older girl. She sat down at the table with her mug and a growl.

"That darned Cajun's come for the summer. And ah'll be darned if he's not as annoying as he always is."

"Who's that?" I asked, confused.

"Gambit." She muttered under her breath. "One of Magneto's ex-henchmen." Then, looking at the door, "Speak of the devil."

There stood the tall New Orleans native, even more attractive in real life than in the cartoons, his red-on-black eyes twinkling.

"Remy wouldn't go as far to call himself the devil. But he's happy that his _chere _was talking about him. Telling the new girl about how _charmant_ he is, no doubt." She snorted into her coffee, and ignored him.

"So," he said, turning to me. "What is this _belle fille_'s name?"

"Cherry." I said.

"Cherry." He mused, putting a French accent to it. "That sounds almost like _chere,_ but that is Remy's name for his Rogue, _qui est la plus belle fille dans le monde_, **(who is the most beautiful girl in the world)** so Remy will have to call you the French for Cherry, which is-"

"_Cerise._" I interrupted him, then gave him a tired grin when he looked at me, disbelieving.

"_Oui, je parle un peu de français." _**(Yes, i speak a little french.) **I said. "I learned at school."

"Don't go trying to charm her, Gambit." Warned Rogue. "She's too young for you, and besides, she's only got eyes for the ice cube."

"Hey!" I snapped at her. "I do not!" She shrugged.

"Yes, you do. But anyway, don't try anythang." She repeated the warning. Remy grinned.

"Ah, ma Roguey, I could never have eyes for anyone but you." He said, his sweet-talking getting him no-where. She threw up her hands, and shot me a look.

"See! Ah told ya! Still as annoying as evah!" And she walked out, returning to grab her coffee and march off yet again.

"So are you really as card-obsessed as they say?" I asked. He nodded.

"Vraiment. **(Truly) **Do you play?" He asked hopefully. I shook my head.

"Only the odd game of go fish, or racing demons." I said. He slumped onto the table, his attention reverting back to his love.

"Why won't she return Remy's affections?" he sighed, palms facing heaven. "Remy has never spent so long wooing a _fille_ before." I shrugged.

"Maybe it's really like those fanfics I used to read say, that she has attachment problems because of the whole touch issue?" I suggested. He shook his head.

"Nah, the Beast invented some tablets that cancel that out for ten minutes at a time. So it can't be that. And what are these…" He wrinkled his nose at the unfamiliar word. "…Fanfics?" I grinned.

"Haven't you heard of them? They're stories people write about books and movies and stuff like that. There are a whole bunch for the X Men cartoon series on the internet. Lots have you and Rogue as a couple." I said.

Remy perked up. "Remy has decided that _Cerise_ must show him some of these. It will help him fantasize about the distant future." I laughed.

"Any time. I'm planning on looking some up tomorrow and laughing hysterically at some people's impressions on what the X-Men are actually like, and how different they really are. Like Kurt's hysteria about stitches."

"Remy will take you up on the offer, but now he must bunk so he has enough energy to put up with his _chere_ tomorrow. _Bon nuit._"

"Bon _nuit._" I replied, and we headed our separate ways upstairs.

_I couldn't resist adding the fan fiction part in. I'm going to have lots of fun with that in the next chappie! _

_Thanks to strayphoenix, Jutwfiniei and BirdsOfPrey for reviewing! Your comments were MUCH appreciated. _

_As always, PLEASE review._

_allyg1990_


	11. Fanfiction and Fluff

_Disclaimer: Only the OC's are mine. And the plot._

_Yay! The chapter with fan fiction references I've been wanting to write in a while… I was thinking about people's reactions if they found out people were writing stuff about them, so that kind of gave way to the following. And then more fluff. Aargh, I really need to get some action in. Ideas appreciated._

Gambit caught me sitting on the couch with my laptop the next morning, tears streaming down my eyes.

"Are you okay, _Cerise?_" He asked, concerned.

I looked at him and let out a fresh burst of laughter.

"This is hilarious! Whoever wrote this is a total _genius!_" I exclaimed.

He looked at me and understood the real reason I was crying.

"Oh." He said. "Now show me those stories." I obliged.

"What is this _Romy _thing?" he asked, confused.

"It means that it has you and Rogue as a couple." I explained. "You know, Rogue, Remy, Romy?" He still looked confused, and then accepted it.

At that moment, Kurt and Kitty walked past, followed by Bobby, Jean and Scott, all crowding around my laptop.

"Who've they got me with?" asked Kitty inquisitively.

"Mostly Lance-" I started, interrupted by Kitty's muttered _That Jerk!_ "But sometimes, um, Kurt too. That's what the Kurtty means." Kitty looked at her best friend, who smirked.

"Vat can I say? Chicks dig the fuzzy guy." He proclaimed, seeming to forget his previous hatred of the line. "Now let me have a look at that one." He stole my mouse and clicked on one I wouldn't have chosen.

His eyes got wide. "Hey, I am not a manic depressive psychopath who never feels accepted because of his appearance!" he yelled. I quickly opened a different one. His smirk reappeared.

"Hey, look at zis! Oh katzchen!" he called, running after Kitty, who had promptly phased through the couch, me, and the opposite wall.

"What does _that_ mean?" asked Bobby, pointing at a story labeled 'Jott'. I flapped my hand at him, thinking, _nothing interesting_ then remembered who was there.

"Jean and Scott. One of the more common ones." I said, watching Scott go as red as his lenses while Jean remarked sarcastically, "Well, the show didn't make that one obvious, did it?" and walked away, dragging Scott with her.

"Who've they got Laura with?" asked Bobby. I grinned.

"Several people- my favorite used to be Scott's little brother, Alex." _(What can I say; I'm a total AleX23 shipper!)_

"Hah!" scoffed Bobby. "She'd rip him apart. And I probably won't even be able to tease her about this, because I don't want to be shredded." I looked at him, mock serious.

"Yes, that would be a terrible shame. I'd never learn how to whistle properly."

"But you can do straight whistle now, can't you?" He argued. I nodded, and gave out a perfect one.

"Sure, but you'd still have to sub for me during that one song."

"Not for long."

We sat in silence for several seconds.

"Who've they got _me_ with?" he asked.

"Mostly Jubilee." I replied. "Probably because of the ice ballerina thing in that one episode."

"So." He said slyly. "The moral of the story is that I'm attracted to people I make ice sculptures for?"

I replied nervously.

"No, not necessarily." I stuttered. "It was just a reference."

"But going on what you said." He cupped his hands. "Here's something for you."

The piece of ice he slipped into my hands before walking away was a heart, the kind you get that are stabbed with cupid's arrows. As it melted my puzzlement just mounted. _What was he trying to say?_ I'd always been to girls-only schools, and didn't really know how to act around boys- or how they were supposed to act around me.

That night all of us X-Girls got together for a giant sleepover. At some point during the night, we decided to give each other manicures, and Amara kept wiggling my foot as she tried to get it in a good position. The problem was, I was extremely ticklish and started laughing incontrollable whenever she did it.

"Stop-too-ticklish-I'll-move-foot-hah-" At once a pink bolt shot from the base of my foot, which was currently on Amara's knee.

"Owwwww!" she shrieked. "What was _that_ for?

I rubbed my foot, quickly placing a hand on her knee to get rid of any bruising.

"Sorry. I've _never_ done that before." I apologized, and she resumed painting my nails pink.

The next day, before my danger room session, I called up to Logan, saying,

"Can I have five minutes before my session- I just want to try something." He nodded but ordered me to make it quick.

Concentrating, like I did with my energy bolts, I directed the energy out this time through my feet. After a couple of seconds, it came, propelling me upwards. For a few glorious seconds I experienced the thrill of flight, before blacking out with a _thump_ as I hit the ceiling, hard.

When I came to, I was in the Med Wing, with nothing to show for my crash apart from a slight headache which disappeared when I unconsciously touched my hand to my head.

Dr McCoy came over when he saw that I was awake.

"Ah, Cherry, a word of advice, when you try to develop your flying skills, please do so _outside_. This is what I meant when I said that your invulnerability disappears when you fire your bolts. It might be a good idea to have a power control session with Ororo to practice using less of your power to fire bolts, and keep the invulnerability in place. But apart from that-" he whistled. "Good job for figuring that out on your own. The professor was giving you another two weeks before he would let Ororo give you a hand."

The door slid open, and Roberto came in. After getting an aspirin for a headache he sauntered over and congratulated me on joining the flight club. (This consisted of him, Sam, Ororo and Jean.)

"Well, at least when _you_ fly-" I told him, "You _stay_ super strong. I just lose the invulnerability. For now."

"It gets easier." He assured me. "By the way, Bobby left at lunchtime to visit his parents for a couple of days. He told me to give you this." He handed me a card. "See you later. It's Kitty's turn to make dinner, hopefully you can guide her a bit. I'm going home in two days and I don't want to be hospitalized."

I opened the card, to read familiar scribbled handwriting that said:

_Heya Cherry. Hope you didn't bang your head too hard and forget all about me._

_I'm going home for a few days, but I'll be back for your birthday. (June 27__th__, Kitty told me.) It's too hot there; so I don't know why my parents like living in Georgia! At least there's more than enough humidity in the air for me to skate around on._

_Well, get well soon. Don't let Roberto (my messenger) kiss it better, that's my job._

_xxxxxxxxxx_

_Bobby._

He seemed to be his usual jokester self. I wished we could swap houses, I _like_ the heat. But not the humidity. And Vermont does have its perks- skiing, sledding, nice walks in the woods, fresh air, and limited cell phone reception in some places, which isn't really a bad thing if you're like me and get virtually no calls. At least it stops people from being on their blackberries 24/7.

I was let out of the med wing quickly enough to save kitty from putting ham in the cupcakes and chocolate in the corn muffins. The fish she cooked was edible once we made a dill sauce for it, and the muffins were pretty good. Kurt made her happy by stuffing his face with four at a time, but when she offered to make some more, he ordered me to stand guard beside her at all times.

Like he'd said in the card, Bobby was back by the 27th, early enough to wake me up with pots and pans outside my door at eight thirty.

"Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty!" He poked his head into my door, leading me to grab my dressing gown hurriedly. "Your sixteenth birthday awaits." I had found out earlier that he had turned sixteen the previous February.

When I was dressed I sauntered down to breakfast, greeted by several Jamies setting the table and preparing breakfast. We were shortly joined by Bobby, who returned his pots and pans and joined me at the table.

By the time breakfast was over, I'd received a carved door-sign that had my name on it from Scott and Jean, who instantly levitated it to hang on my door, a miniature cherry tree from Ororo, and surprisingly enough, a pointed look and a t-shirt from Rogue that was emblazoned with a penguin and the words _I Only Have Ice for You_.

Kurt gave me a German cookbook, Amara and Jubilee got me assorted jewellery, and Kitty promised to bake me my birthday cake, which I in turn quickly promised the others to supervise.

Jamie offered a duplicate as a slave whenever I wanted one, Ray gave me a miniature of one of those glass balls that have sparks inside them, and Rahne's package held a frisbee. I got a deck of cards from Gambit, Laura promised to teach me how to do a barrel roll in midair, Sam and Roberto gave me a bracelet that said _Flight Club,_ and Logan gave me permission to join the main danger room session.

Bobby, however, told me I'd get my gift that night. When the time came, he took me to the front door and zoomed around the lawn creating a mass of ice ramps. Before I could say thanks and walk away, he put one arm around my waist and whispered, "Take us up."

I obliged, slowly lifting us into the air, until we were about a hundred feet away from the ground. There, spelt out in perfect cursive, was my name. I grinned at him.

"Thanks Bobby. That's really cool." I said. He grinned back at me.

"That's not my real present. Here you go." He said, and pulled a box out of his pocket. In it was a pair of gorgeous earrings, two liquid filled spheres that had miniature ice hearts floating inside.

"This is _really_ from me and Dr. McCoy." He explained. "The spheres are filled with liquid nitrogen that's under high pressure, so it keeps the ice inside cold. I can change what's inside whenever you want, so you can have some variety."

"Thank you." I said, resting my head against his bare shoulder as I lifted them up, sparkling in the twilight. "They're beautiful."

It was a while before I took us down. A long while. A nice while. _For once, his skin isn't freezing cold,_ i realized. I wondered if there was any significance.

_That's it, more fluff. As I've said before; it's just plain FUN to write. And for those wondering, Spike is with the Morlocks. _

_allyg1990_


	12. First Test

_Disclaimer: Only the OC's are mine. And the plot._

_Ok, there will actually be some action in this chapter… I'm not good at writing action, so comments/suggestions are appreciated!!!_

The day after my birthday, I joined my first training session with some of the others. Our mission was to get everyone to a certain destination, whatever the obstacles.

I was training with one of the junior teams: Amara, Sam, and Roberto. The danger room shifted around us, and became a rocky outcrop in the middle of a desert. The destination, a flagpole with a bright red flag, was barely visible in the distance.

Cautiously we started to walk across the barren plain, keeping eyes, ears and noses out for a possible obstacle. It couldn't be this easy.

It wasn't. Suddenly a deep trench carved itself out in front of us. Sam and Roberto tried to fly across, and I followed with Amara, but it was no use. Some sort of shield was blocking us from passing using flight. For a short while afterwards we were stuck for options, but then Sam spied a bunch of boulders close by.

"Let's fill the gap and bridge it." He suggested, and Roberto started to haul rocks towards the edge of the trench. Sam and I pushed them in, and Amara melted them together to form a causeway. We crossed it, and after that it was mostly rolling boulders and desert animals to contend with. Sam smashed into a couple of them, but it was mostly Amara and I blasted them to pieces. We reached the flagpole, and as soon as all of our hands touched the flagpole, the desert around us shimmered and vanished, leaving only the hard danger room walls behind.

"Not bad." Said Wolverine's voice, echoing around us. "Good teamwork. Ok, class dismissed, hit the showers."

Unlimited hot water was a blessing after years of sketchy hot water supplies, and I welcomed it. With me having a fairly hot shower, and Amara turning the heat on full blast, the steam inside the changing room was indescribable. So much so that I walked straight into a certain southern belle.

"Watch it." She cautioned.

"Why are you here so early? I thought your session was in another two hours?" I asked. She looked around nervously.

"Ah'm hiding from that Swamp Rat." She said. "This is the only place he can't come into." I snickered.

"So you're planning to wait here for two hours?" Rogue nodded.

"Sounds about right." She agreed.

"You know, you _could _just talk to him." I suggested unhelpfully. She _humphed. _

"Fat chance." So I left her there, sitting grumpily on one of the benches

A few weeks later we were all woken up by the professor early one summer morning.

_All students and staff, please come to my study immediately. We have some matters to discuss._

It was a hot night, and by the time I'd fully woken up, I was at the study door aware that I wasn't wearing all too much- just some skimpy shorts and a spaghetti strap shirt that was much too small, showing off large sections of my (now thankfully _toned_) stomach. It was too late to turn back now, so I headed in.

Most of the students were already inside, so I sat down on the floor next to Kitty and Kurt. Bobby was the last one to arrive, making his presence known by yawning loudly and stage whispering "They sure know how to wake us up at convenient times!" earning him a glare from Logan.

"I'm sorry to disturb your beauty sleep, Bobby." Remarked the Professor, "But I thought you would quite like to know that my half-brother, Cain Marco, has once again been freed from his confinement."

"Juggernaut?" I asked incredulously. He nodded.

"It is vital that we act immediately. I'd like Logan to take Jean, Scott, Kurt, Kitty, Rogue, Bobby, and Cherry-" I looked up, confused.

"Why me? I thought I wouldn't go on missions for ages yet." The telepath looked at me.

"Your-" he started, but Ray interrupted him.

"Healing ability, we know, we know!" he butted in. "How come she gets to go, just because she's got a good power? She's only been here just over a month! We-" he motioned to the other new recruits- "Never get to go on anything!" He turned to me.

"No offense, Cherry. This isn't personal." I plastered on a convincing smile.

"None taken. I'd feel the same way." I said, though I could feel my friendships crumbling around my head.

Xavier looked at him sternly. "Berzerker, the reasons I have for including Cherry in this mission are valid. When I require electrical power, you will be the first person I turn to. Besides, the rest of you have very important jobs if Cain _does_ arrive at the mansion. Rahne, Laura, I want you to sub for Logan as our nose and ears, to warn us if he is approaching. Samuel, Roberto, Amara, delay him as much as you can before he gets to me and the others. Remy, likewise. Jubilee and Jamie, try to distract him as much as possible if he _does_ get in. And Ray- try to use your bolts to unclip his helmet. Please suit up. Storm, surround the mansion with as much fog and winds as you can. Logan, I have already sent the coordinates of his last position to the X-Jet. Leave as soon as possible."

On the way down to the changing room, I couldn't help but feel embarrassed. As Ray had said, why me? Well apart from obvious reasons of course. And would I lose friends over this? Would the older mutants look down on me?

A telepathic voice echoed in my head- the professors.

_You have a good head on your shoulders, Cherry. Use it wisely. Ray needs to learn to control his anger- he reacted in the same fashion when Bobby joined the senior team. I'm sure the others will understand._

A light hand clapped onto my shoulder- Kitty's.

"Don't, like, stress about it. It'll be fine. The professor knew what he was doing when he put you with us. As far as I can tell, the only thing the rest of us are going to say is 'Congratulations.''

I smiled warmly at the older girl.

"Thanks, Kitty. It means a lot." She smiled back.

"Just don't get yourself hurt." She cautioned, and went to change.

The flight was one of the most nerve-wracking I'd ever been on. All I could do was sit there, twiddling my thumbs and taking deep breaths between Scott's boring pep talks and Kurt's extremely unhelpful comments about how if he died, he'd have at least eaten one final last-minute piece of German sausage.

When we arrived, Logan gave us clear orders on our roles for the night- Jean was to fly up and scout around, I was to lay back, hide, and only come forward and use my powers if absolutely necessary. Everyone else was going to keep a lookout and search the area.

The site on which we landed was a clearing, next to a bunch of cliffs overlooking the sea. We all sprung into action, moving stealthily, constantly on the lookout for the dangerous mutant.

We didn't have to wait for long.

Juggernaut's arrival was punctuated by two enormous tree trunks flying through the air at us. Kitty quickly phased through one- Kurt and Scott were not as lucky. They slammed into the ground, and when I rushed over, I found that they were both unconscious, but seemingly otherwise unharmed. A quick blast of healing energy brought them back to consciousness, but I knew it would be several minutes before they would be back in action, so I dragged them laboriously out of the way.

When I got back to the clearing, Kitty had managed to phase through and unclip two of his helmet straps. I had an open aim at a third, popping it open. The realization that this was a bad idea set in pretty quickly as his attention was drawn to me.

"A new arrival." He sneered. "You won't last long against the Juggernaut."

I gulped. So much for Logan's 'Stay Hidden' policy!

Half an hour later, after a lot of help from Wolverine and equal amounts of psychic communication with Jean, we had him cornered on the edge of one of the cliffs. Kurt had long since awakened and with a quick teleport, another clip was opened, letting Jean levitate the protective helmet off.

Bobby quickly iced up, transporting Rogue behind the man, allowing her a few seconds of absorbing his power before he threw both her and Bobby off, to be caught by Jean's telekinesis and brought back to solid ground.

On a signal from Scott, both of us started shooting beams at Juggernaut to push him off the cliff edge. I could feel my power draining away as he tottered, naked and unprotected without my energy field. Just as the cliff gave way under his feet, a glint of silver- a knife? - zoomed towards me. By the time I'd registered the weapon as a threat, it was buried hilt deep in the middle of my chest.

The last thing I remember before I blacked out was the intricate pattern carved on the hilt of the blade, sticking awkwardly out of my body, and time seeming to slow down as people rushed at me from all sides. As I lost consciousness, the last emotion I felt was one of pure surprise.

_Ok, a bit of a dramatic ending. I'll update soon enough that it won't be a cliffy for long!_

_allyg1990_


	13. Revival

_Disclaimer: Only the OC's are mine. And the plot._

_I'm switching POV's for the first bit, to make way for a bit of angsty fluff. Yay! _

Bobby's Point of View

Time seemed to slow down for me as I saw that knife hurtling towards Cherry, her face innocently surprised at this unforeseen obstacle. I saw the blood, seeping from the wound, as Wolverine pulled it out.

"That knife was courtesy of Magneto. I can smell him." He noted, ignoring the half-dead body of the girl in front of him.

I didn't even challenge him over his nonchalance- it was a mistake to send her with us, so new to mutanthood, so inexperienced, her shock still plastered on her face.

We all crowded around, and I picked her up as an order from Jean, cradling her slim frame against my chest. The telepath inspected the wound, too shaken to do much except for nod sadly and comment, "I don't think she'll make it."

I wonder if she heard me, talking to her like a desperate madman, placing her hand over the wound, as if it would miraculously heal without her commanding her power. There was so much left to say, so many things I hadn't said. She'd probably thought my incessant flirting was just a game, another stunt, nothing more than another prank. It hadn't been.

Kitty was already in tears, salt water mixing with the streams of blood dripping onto the ground. I kept frantically talking on my way to the X-Jet, feeling her breaths become weaker and weaker, until they faded away altogether.

"No!" I sobbed, my hands trying to stop the flow of blood, to guide it back into her body, to give her some semblance of another chance at life.

Then, at once, a familiar pinkish light appeared- not from her body, but from my hands. I stared in wonder as the wound healed before my eyes, realizing that the energy that she'd given me for my false bruise was being channeled back to its source. She started to breathe again, my tears of anguish turning into tears of joy as her big blue eyes slowly fluttered open, her lips strenuously uttering the words, "Now we're even, popsicle," before she once again faded back into unconsciousness.

Cherry's Point of View

I woke up several days later to white bed sheets and beeping noises, the blue-furred face of Dr. McCoy staring at me incredulously as I rubbed my eyes and sat up.

"You," he said, "Are one _extremely _lucky girl. If Bobby hadn't played that prank about the fake bruise, you wouldn't be sitting here. That knife punctured a major artery to your heart. You've lost a lot of blood, but you'll be right as rain in a day or so."

I got a flashback from our fight. "What happened to Juggernaut? Did they capture him?" Beast shook his head. 

"No. He is definitely alive though- Rogue didn't drain enough power for that fall to kill him, only to knock him unconscious. We fear that he's allied with Magneto." I frowned.

"I thought he didn't make alliances, just ran a one-man show." The man nodded sadly.

"Unfortunately, Magneto has some sort of telepath under his control- we're not sure who at the moment. It's likely that Juggernaut is being controlled by him."

At that moment Bobby burst in. "Is she awake yet-?" he began to ask, and then saw me.

"Oh. Hi, Cherry." He stuttered. I wiggled my eyebrows at him.

"So, Dr. Bobby," I said, "I hear you saved my life." He turned red.

"It was only really your energy that I'd stored. I'm just happy you survived." He said modestly. I grinned.

"Thanks. From what Dr. McCoy here says, I'll live to see another ice sculpture." He grinned back at me, his face returning to its usual pale color, and reached behind his back.

"I brought these for you." He said, producing a large bouquet of ice roses. I laughed, and took them, putting them in an empty pitcher next to my bed.

"Thanks. In an hour or so I'll be able to have a refreshing glass of water." I said. Dr. McCoy left to tamper with his computers, and Bobby sat down in the chair beside my bed, his voice taking on a more serious edge.

"I was afraid I'd lost you- you stopped breathing at one point." He said, taking a hold of one of my hands. "You probably saved the professor's life by pulling through; Kitty and I might have taken him down. She was pretty upset too."

"I'm glad I survived then. I wouldn't have wanted to be responsible for the institute collapsing." I said, trying to make light of what was not a very jokey situation.

"Your hands are surprisingly warm for an icicle." I murmured, blushing as he squeezed my hand even tighter.

Then Kitty burst in.

"Cherry! You're awake! I've-" She stopped short when she saw Bobby. "Oh." She said slyly. "You have a visitor." He quickly stood up, releasing my hand as an afterthought.

"I've got a training session now- I'll drop by later, okay?" he said, his face yet again taking on a tomato hue. I nodded.

"Looking forward to it." He rushed out rather hurriedly. Kitty immediately hopped up to sit on my bed, bobbing up and down excitedly.

"That was, like, _so_ cute!" she said excitedly, her voice gaining volume. "He even, like, brought you ice flowers!"

"It's a bummer, I can't play the 'I saved your life, you owe me a favor' card anymore." I said lightly. She shrugged off my lighthearted comment.

"Sooo, what did you guys, like, talk about?" she asked.

"Nothing." I said indifferently. "He said that he was happy I survived." She looked at me sternly. "And that he was afraid he'd lost me." I added as an afterthought. She positively squealed.

"Awww! That's so cute! Ah, young love!" she fluttered. I looked back at her cunningly.

"You're one to talk; I've seen the way you look at blue boy when he calls you Katzchen." I said, as a reference to Kurt. It was her turn to blush.

"He just appreciates my cooking." She sniffed, and then reconsidered. "And the whole ears/tail thing is kind of cute."

We talked for a while, and then she left to go to lunch. Amara brought me up a plate of pasta, yet again squealing at the details of my rescue story. Laura, however, was convinced that if my reflexes were better I wouldn't have needed saving, so tried to haul me to a danger room session, but was stopped by Beast in the nick of time.

Several hours later, I was walking back to my room when I bumped into Bobby, heading to the med wing. After a promise to join me to watch _Sky High_ in the rec. room later on, he walked away.

Before I went to watch the movie, Professor Xavier called me into his office. Surprisingly, my mother was there as well.

"Mom? What are you doing here?" I asked. My mother immediately enveloped me in a hug.

"I'm so glad you're okay. The professor called us and told us what had happened, and we hurried up here as soon as possible." She turned to him, glaring.

"I thought you said she would be safe! She's barely been at this school for two months, and you send her on a dangerous mission. She nearly died!" she shouted, her voice escalating.

"Mom, stop it." I interrupted her. "I chose to do this. I _wanted_ to do this. With my powers, it was unlikely that I would get injured. Anyway, I'm fine, and that's all that matters." She sniffed.

"I'm taking you back home. This is too dangerous." She stated, but I pulled my arm away from her grip.

"Don't bother- I won't leave. You can take me, kicking and screaming. Unless you're planning on rebuilding our house out of adamantium, I'll escape. I can blast through any wall you put in front of me." I said angrily, letting an energy beam hover above my hand, stopping just short of the ceiling.

"How will I get back here, you ask? Easy. In case you don't remember from my emails, I can fly." I said, and lifted myself up to her eye level.

"Face it. I'm not going anywhere, unless you want to mess with my mind. And I wouldn't try that." I warned her. She sighed.

"I'm just trying to protect you, sweetie." She said.

"The institute is one of the safest places I can be." I retaliated. "In case you've forgotten, we've got two former Weapon X operatives, the most powerful telepath in the world, and a bunch of kids who helped take down the most powerful mutant of all and save mankind. I feel pretty protected." I crossed my arms.

"I guess I have no choice but to leave you. I rather like my walls the way they are." She said wryly. "Bye, honey." I sank back to the floor and hugged her.

"Love you, Mom." I said. "Love you too, Cherry," she replied, and walked out. I turned to Professor X.

"I'm turning into quite the threatening teenager, huh?" I said cheekily. He smiled tiredly.

"Yes, Cherry, that was a nice speech. But I _would_ like to apologize. It was wrong of me to send you out so early on-" I waved his apology away.

"Now, don't go saying that, you'd be sympathizing with Ray." I scolded, and went to watch the movie.

_Sky High_ was quite amusing for us mutants, being about superhero kids. I sat between Bobby and Amara, the ice man's arm around my shoulder for most of the movie. Towards the end, I rested my head on his shoulder and fell asleep- I'd already seen the movie several times, so it wasn't a big loss. When I woke up, I was being carried to my room by my former rescuer.

"This is getting to be quite a common occurrence." I noted, looking up at his sparkling brown eyes.

"No problem, I like saving the damsels in distress." He joked, and wouldn't let me get down until he'd dropped me gently onto my bed.

"Goodnight, Cherry." He said softly. "Goodnight, Bobby." I replied, my voice equally soft, and he closed the door gently behind him as he left, leaving me alone with my dreams.

_Yay! Fluffiness is fun. I hoped Cherry's speech to her mom was amusing for you guys, it was supposed to be anyway, because I can imagine saying that to my mom. If I was a mutant, of course. _

_allyg1990_


	14. True Feelings

_Disclaimer: Only the OC's are mine. And the plot._

_Okay, queue romance. I'm not used to writing this kind of stuff, so critique/compliments are much appreciated._

When I woke up the next morning I headed straight to the danger room for an early session with Logan, happy to see that I wasn't at all slowed down by my recent injury. The aid of my 'jet packs' as Wolverine called them really helped, though I tried not to rely on them and to scale walls other ways. The second half of the session was a 'no powers' drill, so it required real concentration and stamina. I was happily worn out by the end of it, and relaxed in the luxury of a hot shower, laughing as I saw Rogue sitting in the changing room again.

"This is going to get old real fast." She commented, and I nodded.

"Why don't you want to be around him? It's not like he's ugly, you know." She snorted.

"No, but he's an annoying little sleaze ball. And the ignoring doesn't work, I've tried." She said when she saw my mouth open again.

"Actually, I was going to say, why not take a couple of touch pills and go along with it for a couple of days? You'll at least get a free dinner out of it." I said.

"Ah think you might have a point." She grumbled. "And if it doesn't work out, ah can always go back to hating him." She said. I nodded, smirking.

"Who knows? You might even enjoy yourself." I said. She narrowed her eyes at me.

"You aren't in league with him are ya?" I shook my head and left, calling 'Bye!' over my shoulder.

A little later, I was sitting in my room listening to music and flicking through some magazines when someone knocked on my door.

"Come in!" I shouted, turning down the volume on my speakers as the door opened.

I jumped up when I saw who it was- Bobby, torn up by his recent danger room session. He tried to smile and winced as the cuts lacing his face were pulled at. I ran up to him and quickly put my fingers on them, healing the worst cuts first.

"Why didn't you go to the med wing? It's closer to the danger room, and Beast would have called me up!" I scolded. He grinned sheepishly.

"I thought I'd come straight to the source. Plus, your room doesn't stink of disinfectant."

I came closer, scanning for cuts I might have missed, and saw that even his lips were shredded.

"Let me fix that-" I started, lifting a finger up towards them, but he caught it and pushed it back down to my side.

"No." he said coming closer. "Try this way." He said, and pressed his lips to mine, his skin healing and becoming perfectly smooth and soft under my touch. This time, his lips weren't icy, as when he'd kissed my hand that one time- they were warming, spreading heat throughout my body as I let myself go to the feeling of it.

I didn't see Kitty, her face half phased through the door, the smile on her face almost loony as she watched, then quietly phased away.

_Okay, this is VERY short, but I wanted to get reviews for it before I kept on writing…_


	15. Pool Games and First Dates

_Disclaimer: Only the OC's are mine. And the plot. _

_This is just a bit of lighthearted stuff. _

Apart from a fleeting awkward conversation during breakfast, I didn't see Bobby for much of the next morning- Logan seemed to share Laura's opinion of my reflexes not being up to scratch, submitting me to a full six hours worth of combat training and a hand-to-hand combat session with his clone. The twosome sat gleefully in the control room, watching me sweat, putting me in a foul mood as I walked out, put my bikini on and dived angrily into the pool, where Berzerker was floating around on a lilo.

"Ooh! What's up with the Cherub?" called Ray, quoting the codename I'd finally decided to use. We'd kind of made up after his anger at my getting chosen, but the fact that I'd gotten hurt just made him smug.

"Nothing." I growled. "I just needed to cool off." I swam around, and then bumped into someone.

"Perhaps I can be of assistance," said Bobby smoothly. I punched him in the arm.

"Knock it off, _iceman_." I warned. "Or I'll have to do a lot more than just hit you." He took it the wrong way.

"Be my guest." He snickered. I splashed him.

"Maybe later. But for now, I just want to swim." I said, doing a couple of somersaults, feeling the cold water surround me, suspending me in liquid, as the light filtered down through the surface, illuminating everything, reflecting off the pool tiles. Bliss.

Which was promptly interrupted by a hand tickling my foot.

"Scat, popsicle. If I get close I'm going to pound you so bad, you'd better run and hide while you can-" I started, but was silenced by his lips on mine. "Or do that." I observed, as Ray whistled. Bobby grinned down at me, a couple of inches taller.

"Still feel like pounding me?" he asked. "Not really." I admitted, a finger trailing along his chest as I rose up out of the water, my blasts making the water ripple, and set myself down on one of the sun beds. "I _do _feel like lying here and getting warmed up. So don't go shooting cold air at me." I advised him. He came and nudged me over a bit and lay down beside me.

"I think you'll find that I can very warm." He grinned. I sighed dramatically. It was getting _very_ hard to be annoyed- lying in the shade next to a shirtless hot guy who likes you and pretending to be angry with him is an extremely difficult task.

"I give up." I said, throwing up my hands. "What do you want?" He smirked.

"Just your company, Healer lady. A kiss wouldn't be too bad, either."

"No, it wouldn't." I agreed as I obliged.

"Like, get a room!" teased Kitty as she phased right through us and jumped in carefully.

"You've had a change of heart." I observed. She laughed.

"Just don't let Mr. Logan see." She advised. "Extra danger room sessions for the next month aren't pleasant. At least your guy isn't someone from the brotherhood or acolytes- when I was caught going out with Lance without permission I got two months." I winced, and then looked around cautiously, worried.

"Relax." Said Bobby, as Laura entered the picture. "Is Logan around?" she narrowed her eyes at him.

"Why do you want to know?" she asked. He motioned to me. She sniffed the air.

"Nope." She said, grinning widely. "Resume your…it's called a make-out session, isn't it?" I colored visibly, but Bobby just grinned right back at her.

"That's right." He agreed, and then turned to me. "On a different note, do you want to go to see a movie this Saturday? I know Kurt's taking Kitty-" he stopped to freeze the large amount of water flying towards us from the girl in question.

"For your information," she informed him. "He isn't _taking_ me. I'm only going to make sure he doesn't gorge himself on popcorn. Last time we went, he ate three buckets and nearly choked because he was eating too fast." I grinned at her.

"Sure. Whatever you say, Kitty." She quickly swum away before she could get teased any more. I turned back to Bobby.

"That would be great." I replied. "What time should I be ready to leave?" he thought about it.

"Around five thirty, I think. Ask Kitty though, just to check. Wouldn't want to miss the first date." He teased.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world." I assured him, and stood up, reaching my arms out and stretching. Then, with a final wave, I went back to my room to shower and change for dinner. When I had gotten as far as brushing my hair, Kitty excitedly phased through the door.

"Like, Oh my gosh!" she trilled. "We are going to _have_ to go to the mall. What are you going to wear?" she delved into my closet. "Maybe this skirt, and your _Cherub_ top, he said you looked cute in it… no, too expected… I saw one that might work at Abercrombie; we should have a look…" I got between her and the closet and shut the door.

"Okay, we _will_ go to the mall and buy some stuff." I agreed. "But what's the big deal? It's not like I'm going to the Oscars." She looked at me incredulously.

"It's a date- your first date with him-"

"My first date _ever._" I muttered. An all girls school didn't offer many dating possibilities.

"-So you have to look totally _hot._ It's like, a rule." She added, crossing her arms stubbornly in front of her.

"What about you?" I added slyly. "Don't you want to look fabulous for Kurt?" She rolled her eyes.

"It's not like we're going out or anything."

"Yet." I quipped.

"Fine." She said. "If you get decked up, then so will I." she rubbed her hands together gleefully. "Oh, they won't know what's hit them!"

They wouldn't. After our trip to the mall, we came back loaded with clothes, accessories and makeup. Amara and Rogue agreed to help with hair and makeup, and Jean stood watchfully at the door to make sure we were dressed suitably. (If you ask me, she was getting a little too much like Scott...)

When we were finished, Kitty was dressed in a denim skirt and a sky blue halter top, her hair tied up in her signature high ponytail. I, on the other hand, had on my new pink mini skirt, and a new red v-neck top, set off by the set of earrings Bobby had given me, the ice hearts still floating tranquilly in the liquid.

Kitty's expectations were not disappointed. As we ascended regally down the stairs, we saw our respective men waiting at the bottom. Both were wearing jeans and t-shirts, though both were a lot less scruffy than usual. Bobby whistled.

"You look nice." I whistled right back at him, grinning.

"You don't look bad yourself." I commented shyly as he offered an arm. I took it, giggling. Scott had even let Kurt drive his car, after several threats about what would happen if it was so much as smudged.

When we arrived, Kitty tried to restrain Kurt from heading directly to the candy counter, failed, and promised to meet us after we'd bought the tickets.

The movie we'd chosen was _Atonement_, after much debate about whether we should see that or _Rush Hour 3_. The boys finally gave in, with the promise of getting us to see it the following weekend.

When we next saw Kurt and Kitty, Kurt had his arms loaded down with two mega size buckets of popcorn and several packages of M&M's. Kitty carried our drinks, and pried one of the popcorn buckets out of his hands and passed it to me, looking embarrassed.

"You failed." I informed her. She elbowed me.

"No need to like, rub it in." she said. "Come on, let's go in."

The cinema was unusually empty, apart from several old people. When the lights went down, I felt an arm drape itself around my neck, and leaned in to Bobby's hold. Kitty started blubbering almost as soon as the opening credits started, and didn't stop the whole way through.

We were quite amused to find that the grandparents sitting several rows in front of us hadn't realized that the film would be anything more than a PG, and we had to suppress our giggles as they shielded their eyes during the sex scene.

I felt warm air on my neck as Bobby whispered in my ear, "How about we give them something real to complain about?"

Suddenly Keira Knightley and James McAvoy were looking a lot less interesting.

_Aargh, they seem to be getting shorter. Hope you like it, that's actually what happened with the grandmas when I went to see atonement… Me and my friends were in hysterics._

_allyg1990_


	16. Birthdays and School Days

_Disclaimer: I just own the OC's and the plot._

_Okay, some more fluff… And a leetle bit of Romy and Kurtty…._

In the end the senior citizens left, after disapproving looks in the direction of our party. I was interested to see that Kitty's fuzzy elf had taken on the task of comforting her, furry fingers wiping the tears away from her eyes as she sobbed into his shirt, shielding her eyes from the wounded soldier speaking French onscreen.

When we arrived back home, we rolled up to the door in silence, got out quietly, and then saw two people standing at the door.

Bobby, thinking they were intruders, shouted 'Freeze' **(lol)** as I let out a beam of light, illuminating the scene.

To our surprise, the two 'intruders' were Gambit and Rogue, lip locked.

"Oh." Said Kurt weakly as they sprung apart. "Sorry to interrupt." Rogue scowled at him.

"Ah finally go about kissing someone and as a reward ah get yah guys interruptin me. So much for secrecy!" she threw up her hands and stalked off inside, her Swamp Rat trailing along behind her like a lovesick puppy.

"Well, that was unexpected." Commented Bobby.

"Not really." Said Kitty truthfully. "You could tell that there was a spark of frisson between them."

Kurt was understandably confused.

"You need to read more romance novels." She told him, and then reconsidered. "Actually, just look it up on Google."

Then she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and walked inside. Kurt looked extremely puzzled.

"Vhy did she do that?" he asked incredulously. "Not that I'm complaining or anything."

_You are SO clueless! _I thought. "She likes you." I informed him. "If you like her back, you'd better do something about it." He walked into the house, shaking his head. I turned to my iceman.

"Thanks for tonight. It was nice." I said softly. He smiled.

"It was fun making those grandparents annoyed." He noted. "Let's do it again sometime."

"How about now?" I asked, and got a kiss for my efforts, warming me against the chilly night. I put my arms around his neck as he deepened it, letting his hands stray from their usual position on the small of my back. In the dark, no-one would see my flushed cheeks as his lips sent static electricity coursing through my body, leaving me longing for more when we finally pulled apart, my arms still in their position.

"Goodnight." He said, his lips caressing my cheek, then pulling away, and started to walk towards the mansion. I didn't let go of the hand I held, catching up to him until we were once again facing. Then I took a hold of his shirt and pulled him towards me once more.

"Goodnight." I whispered, then made my way back into the institute and back to my room, promptly flopping onto my bed, my head full of thoughts, my lips still warm from his touch.

Then Kitty phased into my room and plopped onto my bed.

"Well, that was a success." She said dryly.

"And you made a move on Kurt." I added. She blushed.

"How did he take it?" I shrugged.

"He looked shocked, and then asked me why you did that, and I told him if he liked you he'd better get a move on-" She shrieked.

"You did _not!_" I nodded.

"Yes, I did. Then, he just kind of wandered into the house, looking half dreamy, half confused." She grinned.

"I _think_ that's a good sign. What about you and Bobby?" I shrugged again, smiling.

"I got my goodnight kiss alright." I said softly, giving her the details. She sighed wistfully.

"It's all so perfect!" She said, and veered off topic. "I can't believe that in two weeks I'm turning seventeen. Then school starts." She remembered grimly. I groaned.

"Hail the return of the classes and the homework. It's always awful after summer." I said, then, "Thanks for reminding me." She grinned, hitting me with a pillow.

"Any time." She replied, and then decided that we needed to plan the party.

The next day I was sitting in the kitchen, talking to Amara over breakfast, when Rogue came and sat down, in a better mood then usual.

"So. How's it going with Remy?" I asked, smirking. She smiled happily, a reaction I really was _not_ used to, which actually kind of scared me.

"Let's just say ah'm not gonna be hiding in the changing room any more." Amara punched the air.

"Yes! Finally. It was starting to annoy me." She admitted. The southerner narrowed her eyes at the princess.

"Well, ah'm sorry to have inconvenienced yah." She said sarcastically. "Don't ya think it annoyed meh when ya used ta lord it ovah us because you were a princess?" The fire mutant's cheeks colored angrily.

"I did _not_!" she retaliated stubbornly and the two girls began to argue, leaving me open to make a clean getaway.

Kitty's birthday was an extreme success. I succeeded in roping in Laura to help with making Kitty's birthday cake (she got to chop the chocolate I melted for the icing) and Kurt stuffed himself with six slices before Kitty got him to stop. She was in a very good mood, seeing as all us girls took her on a shopping spree that morning.

Just before we watched her movie of choice (10 Things I Hate about You) her mood was further improved by Kurt presenting her with a simple but beautiful silver necklace which he insisted on fastening around her neck. Then he sat next to her for the duration of the movie, and by the end of it I could see her head on his shoulder, and their hands clasped together, his tail around her waist.

The next few days passed fast- _too_ fast. The days consisted of swimming, danger room, and just enjoying the last rays of summer sunshine before the end of the vacation. The professor had long since informed me that the Academy were happy to accept me on the basis of my grades at my old school. The first day of the academic year would be on the fifth of September, a Monday. The day before it started, my parents drove up to see me, along with my little sister, Lilly. The students were under strict orders to keep their powers under control, as the second grader had no idea that mutants existed, let alone that her mom and older sister had powers. There was one near miss with Kitty accidentally phasing through the table to grab an apple from the fruit bowl in the center, but luckily Lilly didn't notice. Instead she jabbered on about her summer, and brought back the feelings of anger at my situation when she mentioned quietly that she missed having me around.

The day school began; I woke up with the rest of the mansion at seven fifteen, as that morning there wouldn't be a danger room session. Amara had picked out my outfit for me, jeans and my trusty CHERUB tee shirt. I couldn't help feeling nervous all the way through breakfast, nearly forgetting my pencil case and homework diary before we left.

Before that day, I had never even seen the Bayville Academy of Excellence before. The huge, grey-stone building loomed above me as I walked in cautiously, Bobby's hand reaching for mine when he saw I was nervous.

"Do you want me to show you the principal's office? Professor Xavier said you had a meeting with her before homeroom." I nodded.

"That would be great." I smiled in a desperate attempt to cover up the butterflies dancing around my stomach.

Apart from a teacher sniffing at our joined hands with a muttered _they shouldn't advertise their private relationships_; the journey to the principal's office was fairly smooth.

Bobby even went as far as to knock on the door and introduce me. With a fleeting smile, and a whispered "You'll be fine!" he was gone, leaving me alone with the brunette, grey suited woman. She stood up, smiled warmly, and shook my clammy outstretched hand with a warm, firm grip.

"Hello Cherry, I'm Principal Clarkson." She said. We sat down simultaneously, and she continued talking.

"This is just a routine procedure- I like to talk to all our new pupils. As you'll find, our classes are quite small. The workload may be a little daunting at first, but I'm sure you'll cope wonderfully. After all, if you're struggling, the other students whom you live with at the institute will be able to help you." She handed over several sheets of paper and a booklet.

"The booklet is the entire syllabus for all ages at the academy- if there's anything you haven't covered, please have one of the other students explain it to you. The sheets of paper are your timetable, a list of school rules, and your locker number and code." I nodded, looking them over.

"Thank you." She looked at her watch, and then looked up at me.

"Homeroom begins in several minutes. Your classroom is down the hallway, and to the right." I stood up and thanked her, then walked out of the room.

Since I didn't have any books yet, I didn't bother going to my locker. Instead, I headed straight to the classroom, and grinned. Sam and Jubilee were both sitting there, and waved me over when they saw me come in. I sat down and plunked my papers down on my desk. Before I could even start talking, a rush of wind made my pieces of paper flutter into the air. In front of my desk appeared a tall, white-blond haired boy, smirking down at me. He held up my timetable.

"Looking for this?" I tried to grab it from him, and missed as he pulled it out of the way.

"Give that back!" I said angrily. Jubilee glared at him.

"Yeah, knock it off, Pietro." He ignored her.

"So _you're _the new mutant." He said, his speech unusually fast paced. I crossed my arms.

"You must be the famous speed demon." I retorted. He took a bow.

"Pietro Maximoff, at your service." I glowered at him, and took the opening to grab back my timetable.

"The only service I want from you is for you to stay out of my life." I told the boy, who sped back into his seat as the teacher came in. He was a short, waddling, cheery kind of man, smiling merrily as shuffled into the classroom.

"Good morning, good morning! I am Mr. Halloway, your homeroom teacher for this year. As most of you probably know, I am the Biology teacher for the older grades, including-" He motioned to us. "You. So I'm looking forward to seeing some of you this afternoon." He then proceeded to take the register, stopping when he came to my name.

"Ah, Cherry. You must be the new student Principal Clarkson was telling me about. Welcome to the Academy." I smiled. If all the teachers were like this man, the Academy might not be as bad as I'd feared. Then my smile turned into a frown. I hoped I wasn't with Pietro for all my classes. Or any of the Brotherhood. If the guy currently leering at me was anything to go by, they were probably not people I wanted to associate with.

_That's chapter 16, I'm sorry not much happened in this one!_

_allyg1990_


	17. The Plot Unfolds

_Here goes chapter 17… The action will start in the next few chapters. _

Lunch was a welcome release from the reintroduction of compulsory work. So far I'd had double math (which nearly rendered me unconscious, due to the fact that blunt objects kept hitting the back of my head, courtesy of Pietro.) and English, in which the source of unconsciousness was a six page long poem about trains the teacher decided to read us. By the time I'd unwrapped my cheese sandwich and taken a bite, I felt a lot better. I was shortly joined by Bobby, Amara and Kitty, who had lunch break at the same time as me. Bobby grinned down at me.

"I hear you survived your first encounter with a member of the brotherhood." He said. I groaned and slumped down in my seat.

"That Pietro guy is _so_ annoying. The fact that he can fit many more stunts into a half hour class period than the average teenage guy really doesn't help." Amara nodded sympathetically.

"It's annoying that you have to be in his class. Technically, they should all be in twelfth grade, but they had to start where they left off when they returned to school. So we're stuck with them." She wrinkled her nose. "At least you don't have to sit next to Toad. He has _serious_ hygiene issues." Kitty almost gagged at the thought.

"At least Lance isn't in my class anymore. It's bad enough that he bugs me all the time anyway, but spending the school day in close proximity didn't do anything positive for my health." Amara smirked.

"I remember a time when you didn't have that train of thought." Kitty rolled her eyes.

"Well, that's over now." She reminded us.

"Aw, you're finally over me, Kitty cat? Took you long enough." Kitty spun around and poked the offender.

"Back off, Lance." He held up his arms.

"Hey, I come in peace." He said. Bobby sniggered.

"That's pretty deep for a guy whose unimaginative, over-frequently repeated famous words are _I'm gonna rock your world._" The older mutant's tone turned deadly.

"Don't get into this, _Iceman_." Bobby bristled next to me, but I put a hand on his arm.

"Don't bother, Bobby. He's not worth it." I reminded him. Lance turned to me.

"Got yourself a girlfriend, ice pop? It's pretty clear how high _her_ standards are if she's with you." This time Bobby stood up fully, bringing himself up to Lance's eye level. I followed suit.

"I'll ignore that." I said coolly. "But at least he _has _a girlfriend, which can't be said for you." Lance pushed Bobby out of the way, making it about five meters across the cafeteria before slipping, falling, and picking himself up again, his face noticeably red.

"I couldn't resist." Said Bobby, a sheepish look on his face. I put my head on the shoulder closest to me.

"Thanks for sticking up for me." I said softly. He grinned.

"Hey, what's a boyfriend for, apart from fighting your fights for you?" I put a finger to my chin, pretending to think.

"Hmm, that's a toughie. I can think of at least one other use." I said, mock serious. "Though it may not be a good idea to enact it in front of a cafeteria full of spying teachers."

"That's what the empty space under the bleachers is for." Quipped Amara. Kitty grinned.

"It was fun seeing that jerk fall flat on his face. Thanks for that, Bobby." He leaned back in his chair." "Anytime." Just then we were joined by Kurt, his tray completely loaded.

"Hi guys. Vat did I miss?" he asked. Kitty ticked them off on her fingers.

"Oh, not much. Just Lance being an ass as usual, and Bobby slipping him up in front of the whole school." Kurt sighed as he sat down.

"Ah, vell, some zings are vorth missing the total humiliation of a brotherhood member, like coercing ze dinner lady to give me seven helpings of bratwurst." He proceeded to take a bite, and spat it straight back out, pushing his tray away.

"Actually, a cruel imitation of bratwurst is not vorth anyzing." He decided, and stole one of Kitty's uneaten sandwiches.

About a week into the school year, flyers went up for the school production of _Anastasia_, so I decided to audition for fun. Kurt had joked about auditioning to be one of Rasputin's demon creatures.

"With ze tail and ze ears, I vouldn't need a costume," he had said, getting a groan and an elbow in the side from Kitty, who had heard many such jokes before, particularly around Halloween time, which many of the younger mutants were already talking about. Jamie had asked me if I thought he would get caught dressing multiples of himself in different costumes in order to acquire the maximum amount of candy. I had informed him that now he'd told me, he didn't have a chance of getting away with it.

Even Kitty had started discussing costume ideas.

"Cherry, I mean, you could so like be Rapunzel, I mean, you like, have such long hair. I bet if I braided it, you'd like, look _so_ similar." Bobby had butted in.

"Does that mean I get to be prince charming and kiss you?" he asked hopefully.

"No, that's Sleeping Beauty." I corrected him. Then I turned to Kitty.

"To be Rapunzel I'd have to add about a hundred feet of hair extensions, so scrap that idea." She pouted. "Spoilsport." I stuck my tongue out at her.

"So, when are the auditions?" she asked, changing the subject. I sighed.

"Next week. It's just a laugh, though, I know I won't get the part." She rolled her eyes.

"Right. You were in choir at your old school and everything."

"Ours was a _gospel_ choir." I reminded her. "'_Oh happy day'_ and '_A Journey to the Past'_ are slightly different." Bobby grinned.

"I want to audition for Rasputin." He teased, and burst into song. "_In the dark of the night!" _ I poked him.

"Do not insult the genius of Disney." I reprimanded him.

When I got the part three weeks later, I decided to call my old roommate Katie to tell her.

"That's great!" she gushed. "I wish you were still here. We're doing Grease. Of course, it's extremely amusing with an all-girl cast. It needs a bit of editing" I laughed.

Just before she hung up, I heard her take the phone away from her ear, and then a,

"Mom? What are you doing here? Hang on a second, let go of me! No, I'm not coming with you. Mom, why are you being so weird? Aah! Why are you turning blue? Hey, you're not my mom. Let go of me!"

"Katie? What's happening?" I shouted frantically. Then a new, older voice took over the phone.

"Don't come looking for your friend, X-Man. We have your family at our base- if you come calling, they will be the first to pay." With that, the phone went dead, and I felt a cold feeling swamp me. What was going on- and more importantly, _what was I going to do?_

_The action starts… No prize for guessing who the 'mom' impostor was… lol._

_allyg1993_


	18. Salvation

_Here we find out the full extent of Magneto's new plot… _

After the mysterious person hung up, I went straight to the professor's study. When he'd finished assessing the situation, he looked up at me, his face grave.

"I fear this is worse than I'd thought. I think it is extremely likely that the person who kidnapped your friend is Mystique, almost certainly in alliance with Magneto. The incident with Juggernaut, and now this, makes it a strong possibility." I paced around the room, anxious.

"But why her? Why would they want to kidnap her? It's not like she's a mutant or anything-" I stopped. "_Is _she?" the professor shook his head.

"No. She is not. However, I think I remember you mentioning that her family was in politics?" I nodded. "Do you have any idea what level of the government they were in?" I half-nodded.

"I think her father was a mayor in some state." He nodded.

"Yes, her father _is_ the mayor of Colorado Springs. But her grandfather-" he paused. "Her grandfather is the President of the United States of America." I took a sharp breath.

"She never told me."

"Why would she want that kind of publicity? If you give us time, we will try to find out what we can. And in the meantime, _do not act._ If Mystique's allegations about your family are true, which I suspect they are, they are in great danger." I nodded worriedly, and walked out.

That night, I couldn't sleep, and instead walked down to the rec room to watch some TV. To my surprise, I found that Bobby was still up, looking over some file or another. He smiled wryly at me.

"I couldn't sleep either. I have a history test tomorrow, and I haven't revised." I curled up on the couch next to him, my head on his shoulder. He slipped an arm around me, comforting me as silent tears rolled down my cheeks.

"It's okay." He said. "It'll all be fine." I turned my face to him.

"None of this would have happened if I wasn't a mutant." He silenced me with a finger on my lips.

"Yes, it would have. Your friend still would have been kidnapped, but she wouldn't have had a friend like you to help rescue her. So don't blame yourself." We sat there a long while, Bobby running a hand up and down my arm, easing my slow sobs until they faded completely.

The next morning we awoke to Logan, Storm, and Professor Xavier re-entering the mansion, looking much worse for wear. I was immediately called to his office.

"Cherry, last night we managed to locate Mystique. I was able to probe her mind and retrieve Magneto's plans. I have also erased her memory of the incident, so she will not be able to inform him that we know his plans." He took a breath.

"Cherry, Magneto has discovered a deadly virus which only affects humans- it kills them. His telepath is controlling your friend to visit her grandfather and plant the virus in a time-controlled container in a conference room in which the President will meet the leaders of many powerful countries and businesses. They will, of course, all die- unless we can stop him."

"We have to." I said determinedly. "We have to save Katie and my family." The professor massaged his temples.

"This could be difficult." He warned me. "The telepath controlling Katie is… a little unusual. He is actually a possessor who goes by the name of Ghost, a mutant who can possess other people's minds and bodies and control them completely, lending them superhuman strength and abilities. His own body was destroyed long ago in a desperate attempt to kill him, and now he has no body- he must continually possess people, or he will die. If we can manage to eject him from Katie's mind, we may be able to save her." I nodded.

"Good. I'll go change." He called after me.

"Cherry, stop." I obeyed reluctantly. "Even if we do manage to eject him, we may accidentally damage Katie's mind- permanently. And you will not come with us." I started to protest, but he held up a hand to silence me.

"You, Kitty and Kurt will go to Magneto's base and rescue your parents and sister. The rest of us will go to the White House to stop Katie before she can complete her mission." I nodded.

"Be careful, Cherry. Magneto will still have Juggernaut under his hold. He will have ordered Ghost to manipulate Juggernaut's mind to order him to kill you. Kitty, Kurt, and your own powers make you ideal for a rescue mission. Use them wisely. I do not want to see you hurt. We leave in an hour- the conference begins tonight at six. Katie will arrive at the White house within an hour and a half, and if we can intercept her before she can get there, it will give us the best chance to put an end to this madness." I nodded again, and walked out."

As I changed I learnt that Kitty, Kurt and I would be dropped from the X-Jet over Magneto's base, and the others would continue on to the White House.

In the last couple of minutes before we left, I was left alone with Bobby.

"This is going to be dangerous. Don't get yourself hurt." He warned me. I smiled faintly.

"I'll be fine- if all goes haywire, Kurt can teleport us out of there. I'm more worried about you- what if Ghost gets in your mind- any of your minds?" I demanded, resting my head on his chest as he wrapped two warm, strong arms around me.

"Jean and the professor will protect us. We'll make it." He said. "It's all in a day's work for the X-Men." He added, grinning weakly.

"But just in case-" I insisted. "I just want you to know- I love you, Bobby." I said tentatively, scared of how he would react. I needn't have worried.

He kissed me tenderly, possibly for the last time. "I love you too." He murmured into my hair. Then we walked silently up to the X-Jet, hand in hand.

"3…2…1…JUMP!" called Wolverine, and Kurt, Kitty and I threw ourselves out of the plane, the winds around us whipping at our suits. Soon Kurt teleported us to the ground, and I swayed from side to side, slightly dizzy. In front of us stood Magneto's base, splendid in all its metallic glory. Slowly we crept to the first wall, and Kitty phased us through. Despite its appearance, the place was small, and it didn't take us long to find the holding cells for the mutants, metal walls holding them in.

I suddenly grew angry. What right had Magneto and Mystique got to keep my family captive? None at all. I felt greater power than I'd ever had before flickering at my fingertips as I blasted open the walls to their cell. In front of me stood my parents and my little sister, looking up in awe.

"Wow, Cherry." Said Lilly shyly. "That was pretty awesome. Mommy told me about the mutants, and how she has powers too." Then she jumped up and down, restricted by her chains. "I hope when I'm big I get to be a mutant!" she said excitedly. My dad sighed.

"But then I'll be the only human in the family!" he moaned as Kitty phased him out of his chains.

When they were all free, Kitty looked around nervously.

"Juggernaut will have heard that." She said. "He'll be here any minute. Kurt, 'port us out of here." He shook his head.

"Too many people, and too far. I'll have to make two trips." She nodded, and Lilly and my Dad gripped his hands. With a _bamf!_ they were gone. And at that moment, Juggernaut arrived.

"We meet again, little girl." He said, an evil smile lacing his hard face under his mask. I glared at him.

"I'm…not…little!" I yelled as I blasted him, pink light blinding the invulnerable mutant's not-so-invulnerable eyes. Other than that, it barely stopped him, and even with the new amounts of power I was harnessing, I couldn't stop him from advancing. Just as he was bearing down on me, with a _pop_ the teleporter appeared behind me, grabbed Kitty and me, and _bamfed _out of the base.

_Bobby's POV: Meanwhile, at the White House._

It didn't take us long to find Cherry's friend- she was walking around innocently, a brown-paper wrapped parcel in her hands, her ringlets bobbing. On a command from Logan, I froze her up, her body encased in ice up to her neck. I smirked.

"That was easy." I commented. Wolverine frowned as the girls eyes narrowed, glinting red.

"I wouldn't be so sure, bub!" he yelled as he pushed me out of the way of the ice splinters exploding everywhere. With a wave of my hand I liquefied them, as the professor's mental voice shouted _Proceed with caution- Ghost's power is controlling her, and she will be a lot more difficult to stop. Treat her as you would Juggernaut._

We leapt into action as she carefully set aside the parcel. We had been warned not to touch it, or we might well set off the device inside. Jean lifted the girl up, slamming her into walls, and Cyclops blasted her with his optic rays numerous times, but she just got back up. A wave of worry swamped me. _Was Cherry right? Would I ever see her again?_

I shook the thought out of my mind, feeling sick to my stomach. If I wanted that to happen, I had to give it all I had, and a new stream of energy filled me. I moved over to the girl on an ice ramp, freezing her up, as Magma encased her with molten rock. It stopped her temporarily as the professor entered the girl's mind, ordering us to run away as fast as we could to lessen the likelihood of Ghost possessing us.

There was a terrible, piercing scream as the mutant was forced out of her mind, Jean trapping his ghostly form with her telekinesis for what seemed like years, as he writhed and twisted on the floor, purplish acid-like liquid seeping into the ground , burning holes in the surrounding floor. After what felt like an eternity, the ghostly form disappeared, and a cheer rose up.

"X-Men, get out of here." Commanded Wolverine. We obeyed, Jean carefully levitating the parcel back to the X-Jet.

_Cherry's P.O.V: Back at the institute._

I had been waiting anxiously for the others to return, pacing around the danger room nervously with my parents sitting there on the floor, Lily just looking around in astonishment. Kurt and Kitty had gone to try and contact the X-Jet.

"So," Asked my Dad nervously. "Is this the kind of thing you do everyday?" I grinned wickedly despite my worry.

"Not _every_ day." I assured him. "But with evil villains around, what else is there for the good guys to do?" He groaned, but Lilly quickly ran up to me.

"So what else can you do, Cherry?" she asked me. I smiled.

"Do you have any cuts, bruises, that kind of stuff?" she nodded, and held out a scratched hand. I instantly healed it with a touch, as she watched in wonder.

"There's that." I said. "And the energy bolts you saw, and also- here, just take my hand." She obliged, and slowly I lifted us up in the air.

She was pretty impressed.

When the others finally made it back, I ran up to my boyfriend.

"Bobby!" I exclaimed. "You're alright!" He laughed, lifting me up and spinning me around.

"You don't look so bad yourself." He said diplomatically. I grinned, and then caught my mother's eye.

"Mom, Dad, this is Bobby" He shook their hands. "My boyfriend." I added. My dad nearly choked. Mom shot him a look.

"Nice to meet you, Bobby." She said politely. My dad just shot him a warning glance, shaking his index finger and saying, "We'll have to talk later, young man."

"Um, sure Dad." I said quickly grabbing Bobby's arm and yanking him out of the room. "Bye."

_Hope you liked that chapter, as I've said before, my portrayal of action scenes is terrible, so all feedback is appreciated. Thanks for those who have reviewed: You're the best!_

_allyg1990_


	19. Unexpected Relationships

As soon as I walked out of the danger room, I remembered my friend and ran straight to the med wing. There she was, the professor by her side, hooked up to tubes and machines, her frail breaths scaring me. The professor looked up at me.

"I think she may pull through. Can you try to heal her? It's mainly mental scarring, but some extra energy would help her mind start to recover." He said as he rolled away. I placed my hands on her forehead, gently passing healing energy into her body.

I didn't leave the med wing for much of that day, until she woke up. Luckily the professor had given me leave to miss school for the next two days, telling the staff I had a highly infectious case of the 'flu.

When she finally opened her eyes, I shot up to a standing position.

"Where…am…I…Cherry?" she said very slowly, her voice rasping.

"With friends." I assured her. "How do you feel?" She smiled weakly.

"I'll be fine…My head hurts… That metal man isn't here, is he?" I shook my head.

"Magneto won't come within a hundred miles of here. We'd kill him if we got our hands on him." Then I realized what she had said.

"So you know about mutants?" she nodded, her smile still there.

"That man explained everything, before he set his… creature on me. He told me you were a mutant too." I grinned.

"Yup." I smiled, my upturned hand glowing pink. "I can heal, and shoot stuff, and fly." Then my face fell.

"You won't…stop being friends with me after this, will you?" I asked cautiously. Her smile grew stronger.

"How could I? Your friends saved my life. I think it's pretty awesome, actually."

I squeezed her hand, her papery skin growing stronger at my touch.

"You'll be out of here in no time." I promised her. "You just have to meet someone first." She frowned.

"Who's that?" I motioned to the blue man now standing next to me. "Katie." I said. "Meet Dr. McCoy. We also call him Beast." She blinked several times, then accepted it.

"Nice to meet you." She said finally. Beast smiled happily.

"You didn't scream. That's always good." I laughed silently.

Just before I got up to leave, Ray walked into the room.

"Dr McCoy, the professor wanted me to tell you…" He started, then saw that Katie was sitting up.

"Oh." He said. "I guess now that you're up it isn't relevant. I'm…Ray." He stuttered. She raised a hand weakly in reply.

"Katie. Sorry for the whole trying-to-kill-you thing."

"Oh, it doesn't matter. Happens all the time. Wait, I mean, you didn't mean to, um, it wasn't your fault…" He ran a hand through his spiked hair. "I'm just digging myself deeper, aren't I?" he asked ruefully. She nodded. "Yup."

He sighed, and I quickly dragged him out of the room.

"You're hitting on her." I accused him.

"Is that such a sin?" he asked. "I'm sure lots of guys do, she's hot." I had to restrain fingers itching to slap him, knowing it was none of my business. Besides, just because we didn't get along, I had no right to injure him for talking to my friend.

"If you hurt her in any way-" I threatened, "I have no qualms about dropping you off a _very_ tall building." He seemed unfazed, and grinned.

"Chill out, _Cherub_. I don't plan on it."

"You'd better not." I warned him, and stomped off.

A few days later, after school, a limousine pulled up to take us institute kids somewhere. The professor was already sitting inside as we piled in.

"This is awesome." Said Jamie wonderingly. "Thanks, Professor!" The old man smiled.

"This isn't from me. The president has invited us to a private ceremony to present you all with an award for public service." Rahne frowned as Roberto helped her into the car.

"I thought he didn't know about mutants?" she asked, her Scottish accent coming through.

"It was necessary to explain the circumstances behind Katie's kidnapping. Thankfully, he did not seem to find our existence troubling."

I let out a breath.

"That makes it a lot easier."

When we arrived we were surrounding by a sea of secret service agents and escorted into a wide room. The black-suited men presently left, leaving us alone with the older, just as formally dressed man. The President.

"Welcome." He said, shaking each of our hands. "Please, sit down." As we obeyed, the door slowly swung open, and Katie entered. She looked prettier than usual (if that was even possible- I'd always felt like the ugly duckling), dressed in a light blue silk dress, her light brown curls pinned to frame her face. I felt a lot better when Bobby leaned over and whispered, "You outmatch her any day, especially during danger room or missions when you wear your Lycra suit-" I slapped him playfully before he could continue.

My friend gracefully came nearer our party, walking more floatily than she ever had at school.

"Hi, Ray." She said almost inaudibly as she passed him, causing his face to turn tomato red. I snickered. I didn't care if _she _flirted with him- as long as he was the one to get embarrassed, I couldn't care less.

After giving me a quick hug, she went to sit next to her grandfather. He cleared his throat and started to talk.

"As your professor will have informed you, I'd like to award you all with an award for public service- you saved the lives of many important people, including-" he gestured, "myself, and my granddaughter. Before I distribute them, I'd like to ask if you will be willing to keep this quiet?" We all nodded. "Good."

The awards were heavy medals with the look and feel of gold. I smiled as Jamie pinned his on, one side of his chest falling closer towards the floor, wearing his 'I'm famous and loving it' look.

When I received mine, the President smiled warmly at me.

"So, you're the Cherry I've heard so much about. If it weren't for you, we wouldn't even know about my granddaughter's disappearance.

"It was a complete fluke." I said honestly. "I just happened to be on the phone with her at the time."

"I'm glad you were." He replied, as I thanked him.

Before we left, Katie caught my arm and dragged me back.

"Tell me about Ray, will you?" I rolled my eyes.

"Full name: Ray Crisp. Codename: Berzerker. Power: Generates electrical bolts of energy. Enough for you?" She grinned.

"Not quite. Send me his contact details." I groaned.

"He's a total jerk."

"At least he's a _hot_ jerk." I shrugged her away.

"Fine. Just don't make out with him in front of me."

"I won't." she said innocently, and let me leave.

The next time I saw her was over two months later, when she came to see me in the school musical. Kurt, surprisingly, had made good on his promise to be one of Rasputin's demons, and the rest of the audience couldn't understand why the rest of the mutants in the audience laughed hysterically every time he came on stage- they were scared witless.

When the show was over, and everyone had congratulated me and Kurt on our respective performances, they took the X-Van home, letting Bobby drive me back in one of the other vehicles.

It was snowing outside, but Bobby was in his element, so wore nothing more than a normal long sleeved shirt. I, on the other hand, was bundled up in scarves and hats, despite having lived in a cold state for most of my life.

"How did that one song go? The one where your character was remembering her past and everything?" I twirled.

"Once upon a December?" He nodded, linking my hands with his.

"Sing it again." He whispered, drawing me close.

'_Dancing bears, painted wings, things I almost remember,_

_And a song someone sings, once upon a December.'_

We swayed, my voice mostly absorbed by the pillowy cushions of snow.

'_Someone holds me safe and warm-' _He obliged.

'_Horses prance through a silver storm,_

_Figures dancing gracefully, across my memory.' _ He slipped his hands down around my waist, and mine went around his neck, as I quietly hummed the music.

'_Far away, long ago, glowing faint as an ember,_

_Things my heart used to know, things it yearns to remember-' _

I turned my face up to his, almost losing myself in his liquid brown eyes.

'_And a song, someone sings_

_Once upon a December.'_

Clichéd as it was, he chose that moment to kiss me. After a few moments he abruptly broke away, grinning.

"What?" I asked, confused. He looked pointedly downwards.

"You're melting." He informed me. I followed his gaze. My feet were glowing pink, the snow around them disintegrating. I laughed.

"Fix it, iceman!" I ordered, but before he could lift a hand I dragged him towards the car.

_As usual, very clichéd and perfectionist, but hey, fantasy moments take on a semblance of life when you put them to paper. Yay._

_allyg1990_


	20. Christmas Time, Mistletoe and Wine!

_I'm taking artistic license with a lot of the family history stuff. No shooting me for that. Thank you._

That Christmas, my parents and sister flew over to the Bahamas for the extent of the vacation. As fun as it sounded, I decided not to accompany them- I for some reason had always craved a white Christmas, and besides, I would be overheating on a beach with nothing else to do, because I was too terrified of sharks to go swimming. Most of the students, including Bobby, were going home, but Rogue, Gambit, Laura and Amara were staying. Even Scott had chosen to go visit his brother in Hawaii.

Festive spirit was a little lacking. Rogue and Remy were always either together or doing nothing of interest, Rogue reading vampire novels, Gambit favoring playing solitaire. Laura, of course, was either out in the middle of nowhere or in the danger room.

So, a few days before Christmas Eve, I forced Amara to come to some dinky junk store with me and buy mountains of cheap decorations. She moaned, of course- "A princess shouldn't have to go into a place like _that!"_ but in the end we managed to purchase wrapping paper, tinsel, mistletoe and other Christmassy stuff.

On Christmas Eve, I was in the middle of baking cupcakes when the doorbell rang.

The figure outside was dressed in a long hooded coat, and I almost didn't recognize him.

"Bobby? Why are you back- I thought you were spending Christmas at home?" He roughly pushed past me.

"I don't want to talk about it." He said, his voice dangerous. I stood there, as if he'd slapped me. I'd never seen him like this before- this person was years away from the usual joking, lighthearted prankster I knew and loved.

I quickly told Logan about his arrival, and he assured me that the professor already knew. I took his advice and left Bobby alone for an hour, then knocked on the door, armed with a plate of cupcakes. He didn't answer, so I knocked again.

"Come in." said his voice grudgingly. I pushed the door open, to see him sitting at the end of his bed, still in his soaking-wet coat. I quickly set the cupcakes down on his dresser and sat beside him, trying to take it off.

"If you keep it on you'll catch a cold." I said.

"I don't care." He muttered, and then let me. My businesslike manner disguising how worried I was, I hung it up over his chair. Then I sat back down, putting an arm around his shoulder.

"What's wrong?" he was silent. I reconsidered.

"Okay, you don't have to tell me. But I'd like it if you would." I offered him muffin in my outstretched hand. "Chocolate makes everything better."

After a few minutes he took it, turning it over in his hands.

Finally, he started to talk.

"I…had an argument with my dad. A bad one." I waited patiently, until he realized I wouldn't leave him alone until he told me the whole story. "My dad… he's never been overly supportive of me being a mutant. When I come back, he just seems to… fall apart. He came home one night, really drunk. My brother tried to talk to him, but he just shouted… he knocked over a vase as he ran away, and I froze it up so it wouldn't break. Then he yelled at my brother for knocking over the vase, and yelled at me for being a... a freak. When my mom told him not to shout, he slapped her. I just…snapped. Told him he shouldn't have done it- he told me to get out of the house. So, here I am." He threw up his hands in a weak attempt at humor, but I didn't laugh. Instead, I just hugged him tighter.

"That's awful." I said quietly. "You're not a freak." He shrugged.

"To him, there isn't another word to describe me."

"So, you're spending the rest of the vacation here?" he nodded.

"Looks like it." I pulled him up off the bed.

"You can unpack later. You need to get your mind off this- let's make some fruitcake." I decided, marching him out of the room. He stopped before we got out of the door.

"Cherry- thanks. At least I get to spend Christmas with you." I smiled.

"I could say the same thing." I said, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek before carrying on walking.

The fruitcake _did _take his mind off it, and he even smiled after throwing a handful of flour at me. But as soon as the professor mentally called him for a meeting, his face fell.

"Time to face the music." He sighed. I squeezed his hand.

"I'll be in here if you need me." I reminded him, and he walked off.

That night we spent hours decorating the Christmas tree, complete with popcorn strands and tinsel. The night before Christmas was required viewing, though Rogue walked out halfway through, Gambit trailing after her, his voice pained as he called, "Aw, _Chere,_ it was just coming to the good part!"

A knock on my door woke me up at eleven.

"I couldn't sleep." Bobby admitted. I scooched over. "Lie down." I commanded him groggily, too tired to think about the consequences. He looked at me, dumbfounded.

"I was thinking about talking?" I groaned.

"I'm too tired. Just get in. It's the whole thing with kids escaping to their parents' rooms', it helps you sleep. Anyway, at the moment I couldn't care less if anyone gets the wrong idea." He nervously lay down beside me. I turned towards him, wrapping my arms around his chest.

"Now get some sleep." I ordered him. I don't know how long it took him to fall asleep- the last thing _I _remember was him stroking my hair as I drifted off.

The next morning I- or rather _we_- were woken up by Rogue banging on the door.

"Wake up, yah sleepy-head! It's Christmas morning!" I rubbed my eyes, sitting up in bed.

"If yah don't get up, ah'm gonna have to come in and-" She burst in.

"Oh." She said, eyes widening. "_Oh._" Bobby immediately jumped out, getting entangled in my duvet in the act and ending up sprawled on the floor.

"It's not what you think-" he started, as Logan stuck his head in. "Oops."

The next fifteen minutes were spent trying to save Bobby from being made into mincemeat. He finally got away with a warning after I dragged him to the ceiling, out of Wolverine's reach.

After that incident, we all gathered around the Christmas tree to open our presents, the Professor watching us, Logan slouched on the couch, his usual beer swapped for a glass of eggnog.

Rogue seemed happy when Remy presented her with a new set of books, and he just laughed when he opened her present: A rather cheekily illustrated pack of cards, which he promised not to blow up unless it was absolutely necessary.

Amara gave in to squeals of excitement when she opened her presents- all of us had given her clothes and accessories that, purely 'by coincidence' seemed to match perfectly. The professor had given us all book vouchers, commenting that they would probably be used on reading material he didn't approve of (Amara was already trying to decide whether she should buy the new _Gossip Girl_ or _The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants._)

After exchanging presents, Bobby and I decided to open them at the same time.

After much consultation, I had bought him a couple of CD's that Sam had recommended, and after being told to by Amara, some of this Axe aftershave people kept telling me about. Afterwards he would put some on and grin, asking me if I thought he smelt sexy, but for now he seemed genuinely happy.

When I opened his present, I laughed aloud. He'd gotten me several new albums from my favorite artists, and a very nice bottle of perfume.

"I guess we have similar taste." He said, restraining himself from laughing. I had to bite my lip, a smile trying to take over my face.

More for a joking purpose, we'd all bought Laura and Logan each a selection of novelty knuckledusters.

"Just in case the person you're slicing fails to be injured by the razor sharp claws." I commented dryly. Logan grinned at his clone.

"Now, if that happened, we wouldn't be doing our jobs properly, would be now?" he asked her. She shook her head, her smile wolfish.

The Christmas lunch was a great success- alright, I'd cheated a little and bought the cranberry sauce, but with help from the other students, we managed to prepare a feast worthy of a king. Or at least worthy of seven mutants, in any case.

After we'd washed up the dishes, I started walking out of the kitchen, closely followed by Bobby, who grabbed my hand under the doorway, looking up, then into my eyes.

"Want to take advantage of the mistletoe?" he asked. I looked up. I didn't remember putting any _there_…

That was when I noticed a small droplet of water dripping off it, and realized it was iced onto the arch of the doorway.

"Sure." I smiled. "Why not?"

It was turning out to be a very good Christmas indeed.

_Okay, mindless fluff. There will probably be at the most 1 or 2 more chapters, due to low review counts leading to lack of inspiration. Plus, I'm working on my own story (non-fic) so I need time for that._

_allyg1990 _


	21. Get Lucky an Optional Chapter

_Okay, Alice, as requested, here it is. Don't shoot me; just skip it if you want to._

A few days later, I was sitting in my room, having just showered and blow-dried my hair. I'd just started putting my special ice-earrings in when I noticed that one was missing.

When the knock on my door came, I was frantically searching for it.

"Come in!" I yelled, and Bobby slipped in, shutting the door behind him. He was holding up my earring.

"You found it!" I exclaimed, and he came towards me.

"It was on the kitchen floor. Here, let me put it back in for you." He offered, and I let him, closing my eyes as he put one hand behind my neck to steady it, and slipped the earring into my ear. I had expected him to move away after that, but he didn't, letting his hand run down my arm, left bare by the pajamas I was wearing.

"You're beautiful." He whispered as he kissed me, his arms moving to slide around my waist.

"I'm glad you think so." I told him between kisses. Gradually they became more insistent, hungrier, as we moved towards my bed.

_Bobby's P.O.V._

It had just been an ordinary make-out session, albeit one that was ruining the perfect alignment of Cherry's sheets, when she slowly pulled away, and stood up.

"What's wrong?" I asked uncertainly. _Have I done something?_ I thought.

"Nothing at all. Quite the opposite. You, Bobby Drake, are about to get lucky." And with that she locked the door.

My eyes widened as I realized what she meant by this, leaving me pretty much lost for words. All I could come up with was a stuttered, "Um, well, we can't, I mean, I don't have-" I ran a hand through my hair. _This has the potential to be very awkward._ She grinned.

"Don't worry about _that._ I've been on the pill for the last six months." My eyes widened further, and she punched me playfully in the arm.

"Not for _that_ reason, silly. That's not the only grounds on which people take it, you know." I tilted my head, giving her a confused look, thinking about it, when I remembered something from a biology class years ago.

"_Oh._ That is _not_ something I want to be thinking about right now." I groaned, and flopped backwards. She took the opening to straddle me, hands on my chest.

"So…?" I looked up at her. Contrary to popular belief, I wasn't actually a sex-crazed player.

"Are you sure?" The kisses she was trailing along my neck were getting _very_ distracting.

"I love _you_, Bobby. Is that the way _you_ feel?" I nodded, taken aback by the fact that she might even consider that thought. She grinned cattishly.

"Now where were we?" She asked, pulling of her skimpy top to reveal a black lacy bra hovering inches before my eyes. I took the liberty of unclasping it, letting it drop onto the flower-patterned duvet.

"I think I remember."

_As stated, this is for Alice only. Do not shoot, I repeat, do NOT shoot!_


	22. Breakdowns and New Year

The next morning Jean stormed in, with a warning look at Bobby and I, who were sitting at the kitchen table staring at her in disbelief over our hot cocoas. The great Jean Grey, in a state? A few minutes before I would have thought it impossible. She threw herself into a chair and slumped her head onto the table, looking up only to mumble, "Coffee, please," before returning to her original position.

I quickly stood up and obliged, turning the kettle on and bringing out a large mug- she was going to need all the caffeine she could get.

A few minutes later I sat down and pushed the coffee over to her, and she finally straightened up. I sat there patiently as she sipped it, waiting for an explanation from the older girl. Bobby just kept testing his cocoa to see if it was cool enough to drink yet, and then finally frowned and stuck his finger in it, watching the steam gradually disappear.

Jean finally looked up at me and sighed.

"I've been awake for twenty-four hours straight, now is not the time to talk." I kept on staring, and she reconsidered. "At least not until I've finished my coffee." I nodded.

Bobby downed his drink in one and stood up to deposit his empty mug in the sink, stopping to plant a wordless kiss on my cheek before he left. Jean raised her eyebrows.

"You're more touchy-feeling than usual. Anything changed in your relationship I should know about?"

"Changes, yes, but nothing you're hearing about- at least not from me." I assured her.

"Actually, you don't need to tell me anything." She said, grinning wickedly and tapping her temples. "It's all up here." I looked at her, furious.

"Don't go through my mind without permission!" I snapped. She shrugged.

"I didn't have to. You were projecting pretty loudly. Keep your thoughts to yourself, please. There's a whole lot of imagery I don't need to be floating around my head in there at the moment, and I'm not looking forward to a repeat." I was aware that my skin was turning a dark shade of scarlet, and turned my face away, standing up.

"Want some more coffee?" I muttered.

"Please." She extended the mug out to me, and I filled it up again.

"So. _Why_ have you been up for twenty-four hours straight?" I questioned.

"Stayed up late last night watching a movie- then walked in on my parents arguing about me. So I decided to leave before I overstayed my welcome, and drove up here. It's no biggie, happens all the time." She added, seeing my look. The period of silence that ensued gave me time to reflect on this. _I'm lucky to have parents like mine._ I thought. _A family like mine. I guess it's different though, with mom being a mutant and all. It must be awful, having no-one to turn to, hearing your parents say things like Bobby was talking about- the very people who are supposed to play the whole 'we'll love you no matter what' spiel. _

My musings were interrupted by Jean standing up abruptly.

"Thanks for the coffee. I needed that." She said, rubbing her head with one hand, and wincing.

"Can you get your bags up to your room?" I asked. She nodded, so I left it at that and began the washing up.

By the time New Year rolled around, most of the others had returned, except for Jubilee, Scott and Sam, and the mansion was once again filled to the bursting point with sparks sizzling around every corner, fireballs singeing the curtains, and the scent of wet dog after Rahne had gone on a romp in the snow, ditching her Brazilian friend, who was cocooned in seven layers of clothing, muttering foreign curses from his mound of hot water bottles on the couch.

Ray had also returned, as I discovered fully a couple of days later when I'd returned from a freezing walk through the mansion grounds with Bobby, who was still zooming around on his ice ramps outside.

I had no sooner shucked my coat, gloves, hat and scarf, my cheeks rosy from wind chill, when I walked in on Ray up close and personal with a girl I soon found out was none other than my friend Katie. When I entered the room, they broke apart, and I cocked my head, the reality not yet having set in.

"Hi. I thought you were coming over after New Year's." I asked her, skimming over the sight I'd just seen. She seemed happy for that and just took a few breaths before answering.

"Um, I still am, but Ray invited me over." I smiled.

"That's nice. I'll be going then." I said, and made my way out of the door, still slightly shocked and confused.

The New Year's party was an experience, to say the least. The younger children had opted to go camp out in someone's room and watch a movie, so it was me, Kitty, Kurt, Jean, Bobby, Laura, Rogue, Remy and Amara who were positioned in different corners of the rec room that night. Ray had long since disappeared off somewhere with Katie, and I had no intention of finding out how the evening went- some things were just not meant for me to visualize.

The professor was off at some function, Storm was still with her family, and Logan had long since sidled off with a six pack of beer and a warning that anyone that disturbed him would be gutted. Dr McCoy, the sole member of staff left around to after us all, was still in the med wing celebrating with a case full of files.

The professor had left a warning note next to the bottle of champagne on the kitchen table, cautioning us that it was to be used for nothing more than a toast at midnight. It went without saying that the general opinion was that we were (apart from Jean, of course) happy that Scott wasn't there to enforce order.

As I lounged on the couch, watching the ball drop, a glass of champagne in hand, and my head on Bobby's shoulder, I felt than for once, life was going according to plan.

Far away from the institute, I wasn't around to witness two figures standing in front of a computer screen, watching a video feed of the mansion, and looking at us through the window, our distant fuzzy shapes lending no distinction as to who was who.

"They are safe for now." Said the man, his metallic armor clanking as he moved. "It will take us years to find another weapon as suitable as Ghost. But next time…" he closed a fist, as if crushing an imaginary enemy. "Next time, they will not be so lucky."

_There's the end to this story, a sequel will be up soon, taking place 7 years later. Lots of OC's will be around. ____ It will be from the POV of Cherry's sister Lilly, and is currently called "The New Mutant in the Family". Unless you guys can come up with something better. Keep those reviews coming!_

_allyg1990_


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